JAN  :n  1916 


BV4010    .M333 

McGlothlin,  William  Joseph, 

1867-1933. 

Vital  ministry,  the  pastor 

of 

to-day  in  the  service  of 

man. 


/ 


A  Vital  Ministry 


A  Vital  Ministry 


Hhe  Pastor  of  To-Day 
In  the  Service  of  Man 


<mi 


y  By 

W.  J.  McGLOTHLIN,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D. 

Profeuor  of  Church  History  Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary 


New  York        Chicago        Toronto 
Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
FLEMING   H.    REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Preface 

THROUGH  some  years  of  experience 
and  observation  the  author  has  care- 
fully watched  and  studied  the  char- 
acteristics of  our  present-day  ministry.  His 
position  as  Professor  of  Church  History  has 
compelled  him  to  extend  his  observations 
through  the  centuries  to  the  beginnings  of 
Christian  history.  No  other  phenomenon  of 
these  centuries  has  impressed  him  so  deeply 
as  the  baneful  effects  of  ecclesiasticism.  It 
has  invaded  every  nook  and  corner  of  Chris- 
tian life,  bearing  paralysis  and  dry  rot,  where 
there  should  be  abundance  of  life.  This  fatal 
failure  has  been  due  to  just  one  thing :  In- 
stitutions have  been  placed  in  the  room  of 
life,  in  the  thought  and  efforts  of  the  min- 
istry. It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  recall 
God's  ministers  to  the  position  and  attitude 
of  their  divine  Master  and  the  apostles,  the 
attitude  of  service  to  life.  Man  is  central, 
the  institution  must  take  the  position  of  a 
servant.  The  adoption  of  such  an  attitude 
would  affect  the  minister's  methods,  stand- 
5 


6  PREFACE 

point  and  efficiency  in  every  department  of 
his  work.  The  effort  has  been  made  to  point 
out  in  the  following  pages  how  some  features 
of  ministerial  labour  would  be  modified  and 
vitalized  by  the  vital  ideal  in  the  ministry. 

Once  the  ideal  of  a  vital  ministry  is  in 
mind  its  application  can  be  extended  far  be- 
yond the  subjects  treated  in  this  volume. 
Above  all  things  we  need  to-day  a  ministry 
that  can  speak  to  the  men  of  to-day,  a  min- 
istry that  will  not  be  confused  or  turned  from 
the  main  matter  by  the  persistent  demands 
of  a  beaten  but  resolute  ecclesiasticism.  It 
is  the  hope  of  the  author  that  this  book  may 
help  in  some  measure  in  this  direction  by 
clarifying  the  proper  ministerial  ideal  and 
encouraging  men  to  follow  its  gleam. 

Wo  J.  M. 

Louisville,  Ky, 


Contents 

I. 

The  Vital  Ideal  in  the  Ministry 

9 

II. 

The    Minister    in   the    Modern 
World 

26 

III. 

The  Minister  and  Truth     . 

54 

IV. 

The  Minister  and  Theology 

73 

V. 

The  Minister  and  the  Sermon 

lOI 

VI. 

The  Minister  and  Worship  . 

120 

VII. 

The  Minister  and  Christian  Ar- 
chitecture and  Art      . 

140 

VIII. 

The  Minister  and  the  Bible 

158 

IX. 

The  Minister  and  His  Church     . 

171 

X. 

The  Minister  and  Social  Ques- 
tions      ... 

182 

THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY 

"  TT  CAME  that  they  may  have  life,  and 
I     may  have   it  abundantly."     In  these 

-*-  words  the  Master  expressed  His  con- 
ception of  His  task  in  contrast  with  the  work 
of  the  teachers  who  had  gone  before  Him. 
Later,  after  the  agony  of  Calvary  and  the 
victory  over  the  grave  were  behind  Him  and 
He  was  laying  His  visible  work  down  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  men  who  had  companied 
with  Him,  He  summed  up  their  task  in  these 
memorable  words,  "  As  the  Father  hath  sent 
Me,  even  so  send  I  you."  He  thus  gave  to 
His  disciples  the  task  which  His  Father  had 
given  Him,  sending  them  forth  on  precisely 
the  same  mission.  His  work  was  to  be  their 
work,  the  ideal  of  their  ministry  the  same  as 
His. 

Few  passages  of  Scripture  are  more  im- 
portant for  the  minister  than  this.  The  ideal 
which  one  cherishes  as  the  aim  of  life  is  the 
most  important  single  factor  in  the  success 
or  failure  of  that  life.  The  character  and 
9 


10  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

quantity  of  the  work  done  is  almost  wholly 
dependent  upon  this  ideal.  In  no  calling  is 
this  more  profoundly  true  than  in  the  minis- 
try. The  minister  moves  in  the  realm  of 
ideas  and  ideals,  he  is  the  knight  errant  of 
the  spiritual.  He  deals  with  realities,  the 
most  profound  and  vital  realities  of  life  in 
fact,  and  yet  with  realities  which  are  some- 
what dim  and  elusive  to  the  ordinary  mind. 
Moreover  the  central  and  main  purpose  of 
the  ministry  has,  through  the  process  of  the 
centuries,  become  so  heaped  about  with 
masses  of  subsidiary  but  more  or  less  im- 
portant matters  that  there  is  danger  that  the 
heart  of  the  calling  which  affords  reason  for 
its  existence  may  be  greatly  obscured  or  even 
entirely  lost  from  sight.  Not  infrequently 
the  mind  of  the  minister  becomes  confused 
and  he  allows  minor  matters  to  usurp  the 
controlling  place  as  the  ideal  or  dominant 
purpose  of  his  life.  In  so  far  as  this  catas- 
trophe falls  upon  him  his  ministry  will 
inevitably  be  weakened  or  blighted. 

Every  thoughtful  Christian  believes,  and 
must  believe,  that  Christianity  in  its  essence 
is  the  salt  of  the  earth  and  the  light  of  the 
world,  sweetening  and  saving,  enlightening 
and  liberating.  And  yet  no  man,  possessed 
of  even  a  slight  acquaintance  with  the  history 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY   11 

and  the  present  condition  of  Christianity 
throughout  the  world,  can  fail  to  see  that  as  a 
whole  it  has  fallen  far  short  of  its  exalted 
possibilities.  In  fact  we  are  compelled  to  ad- 
mit with  shame  of  face  that  historic  Chris- 
tianity has  often  shackled  and  manacled  men, 
and  sometimes  administered  poison  for  which 
there  was  no  antidote.  Sometimes  instead  of 
bread  the  Church  has  given  a  stone,  instead 
of  freedom  slavery,  instead  of  purity  and  en- 
lightenment darkness  and  superstition.  Why 
this  great  failure,  the  most  tragic  perhaps  in 
the  annals  of  mankind  ?  It  is  chiefly  because 
the  ministers  of  religion  have  missed  the 
main  matter,  turning  aside  to  subordinate 
things  which  they  exalted  into  a  central  and 
therefore  false  position.  The  leaders  of  the 
blind  have  themselves  become  blind  and 
both  together  have  fallen  into  the  ditch. 

What  then  is  the  proper  ideal  of  the 
ministry,  the  one  great  aim  which  should 
subordinate  all  else  to  itself  and  direct  all  the 
minister's  energies  ?  In  a  word  it  is  the 
nurture  and  growth  of  life — the  soundest, 
fullest,  completest  life  that  is  possible  for  each 
individual.  So  far  as  we  can  learn  from 
both  science  and  revelation  this  was  and  is 
the  task  which  God  has  set  for  Himself  to 
work  upon  through  the  centuries.     When  the 


12  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

vast  processes  of  creation  were  in  some 
measure  completed  God  said,  **  Let  us  make 
man."  All  else  seems  to  be  (and  science  can- 
not contradict  this  statement)  for  the  sake  of 
man.  Through  the  centuries  since  that  natal 
day  of  man  God  has  been  slowly  but  steadily 
working  at  the  same  great  task.  It  has 
been  slow  because  God  was  making  a 
creature  for  eternity  with  Himself.  By  the 
testimony  of  archaeology  we  are  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  through  many  centuries  man 
has  gradually  risen  in  the  qualities  that  are 
counted  higher.  From  a  position  little  above 
the  brute  in  his  skill  at  the  crafts  and  his 
power  over  nature  he  has  risen  to  the  splen- 
did position  which  he  holds  to-day  when 
earth  and  sea  and  air  have  been  subdued  to 
his  control.  It  is  probable,  but  not  demon- 
strable, that  he  has  risen  in  spiritual,  intellec- 
tual and  moral  qualities  in  the  same  way  and 
degree.  Within  historical  times  we  have 
seen  him  rising.  Through  king  and  prophet, 
priest  and  seer  and  mighty  layman,  by  sud- 
den strides  and  by  long,  slow  and  painful 
processes,  God  has  been  visibly  working  at 
the  great  task  of  making  man — lifting  him 
into  a  higher,  richer,  fuller  life.  Life,  elusive 
and  evanescent  as  it  seems,  still  appears  to  be 
the  most  precious  treasure  in  the  universe, 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTEY   13 

that  for  which  all  else  came  into  being. 
Jesus,  in  contrasting  His  mission  with  that  of 
the  teachers  who  had  come  before  Him,  de- 
clared that  they  had  devoured  the  sheep, 
destroyed  the  life  to  gratify  themselves,  while 
He  had  come  that  the  sheep  might  have 
abundant  life,  even  though  the  task  of  giving 
it  was  to  cost  Him  His  own.  His  mission 
was,  therefore,  by  His  own  interpretation,  to 
give  to  men  an  abundant  life.  Paul  declares 
that  men  are  God's  husbandry,  God's  build- 
ing ;  at  the  same  time  he  associates  himself 
and  other  Christian  workers  with  God  as  fel- 
low labourers  with  Him  in  His  great  task.  It 
seems  clear  therefore  that  the  task  which 
God  set  for  Himself,  the  task  which  He  sent 
His  saints  and  His  Son  to  set  forward,  the 
task  which  He  has  set  us  as  His  co-workers, 
is  the  task  of  producing  a  full,  abounding  life 
in  men.  This  is  the  Christian  task ;  all  else  is 
secondary  and  auxiliary  to  that. 

Life,  then,  is  the  primary  output  of  Chris- 
tian work,  and  the  minister's  efficiency  is  to 
be  estimated  chiefly  by  the  amount  and  qual- 
ity of  life  his  ministrations  are  producing. 
What  sort  of  men  is  his  ministry,  his  church, 
his  denomination  producing,  and  how  many 
of  them  ?  This  is  the  primary  question,  the 
question  which  he  as  a  minister  will  have  to 


14  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

face  when  at  last  he  stands  before  the  Fa- 
ther's throne. 

The  minister  is,  therefore,  a  spiritual  biol- 
ogist. His  interest  is  in  life.  Life  he  studies, 
follows  it  in  all  its  manifold  variations  and 
manifestations,  seeks  to  know  its  origin,  na- 
ture and  characteristics,  the  laws  of  its  growth 
and  propagation.  But  he  is  more  than  a 
biologist ;  he  is  also  a  spiritual  horticulturist. 
His  aim  is  practical.  He  desires  not  only  to 
know  but  also  to  grow  life.  It  is  usually  his 
august  privilege  to  preside  at  the  generation 
of  spiritual  life ;  upon  him  devolves  chief  re- 
sponsibility for  the  nurture  and  the  growth  of 
that  life.  He  must  provide  a  favourable  en- 
vironment, furnish  suitable  spiritual  food, 
protect  the  tender  life  from  its  numerous  and 
dangerous  enemies.  He  must  become  con- 
scious of  the  fact  that  he  is  growing  men, 
that  Bible,  church,  ordinances,  ministry,  wor- 
ship, all  are  for  the  sake  of  man.  "  All  things 
are  yours."  Jesus  stated  this  principle  with 
great  clearness  in  speaking  of  the  Sabbath 
which  was  at  that  time  the  most  sacredly  re- 
garded of  all  the  Jewish  institutions.  "  Man 
was  not  made  for  the  Sabbath,  but  the  Sab- 
bath for  man,"  said  He.  The  Jews  had  re- 
versed this  view  of  the  relative  importance  of 
man    and   the   institutions   of   religion.     To 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY  15 

them  the  institutions  were  sacred  and  holy  ; 
to  Him  man  was  the  object  of  solicitude. 
According  to  Him  the  Sabbath  is  being  prop- 
erly observed  when  it  is  properly  serving 
man,  best  kept  when  it  is  best  serving  man. 
And  it  is  for  man^  all  men  ;  not  for  Jew  alone 
or  Christian  only,  not  for  churchmen  and 
good  men  only,  but  for  the  good  and  service 
of  all  men  everywhere.  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man.  The  same  relation  doubtless 
exists  between  man  and  all  the  other  institu- 
tions of  religion.  They  do  not  exist  for  their 
own  sakes,  nor  does  God  care  for  them  in 
themselves.  It  is  man  that  He  loves  and 
cares  for,  seeks  to  save  and  serve ;  and  He  has 
established  these  institutions  for  the  sake  of 
man.  All  that  are  of  divine  origin  have 
value  for  the  life  of  man,  and  just  so  far  as 
they  are  serving  this  purpose  they  are  pleas- 
ing to  God,  and  no  further.  It  is  impossible 
to  believe  that  God  would  wish  the  perpetua- 
tion of  a  thing  that  had  become  useless,  even 
though  He  had  Himself  instituted  it  and  it 
had  once  served  a  useful  purpose  ;  or  that 
He  could  have  any  interest  in  a  ceremony  or 
institution  in  itself,  apart  from  its  useful  rela- 
tions to  man.  George  Fox  was  right  in  con- 
tending that  the  ordinances  should  be  abol- 
ished unless  they  have  value  for  the  life  of 


16  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

man.     He  was  wrong  only  in  the  contention 
that  they  have  no  such  value. 

If  Christian  men  had  been  possessed  of 
this  conception  of  the  place  of  man  as  central, 
and  we  may  say  almost  sole,  in  the  divine 
thought,  the  course  of  Christian  history  would 
have  been  vastly  different.  We  should  have 
been  spared  the  shame  that  now  consumes 
us  at  every  reading  of  church  history.  The 
place  of  those  dark  and  bloody  chapters  that 
tell  the  story  of  the  persecution  of  men  in  the 
name  of  Him  who  died  to  save  them,  would 
be  filled  by  pages  made  luminous  with  deeds 
of  love  and  service.  But  it  was  not  to  be. 
The  institutions  grew  to  be  regarded  as  holy 
and  inviolate.  The  Church,  the  clergy,  the 
sacraments,  theology,  forms  of  worship,  cer- 
tain days  and  annual  seasons,  came  to  be 
thought  of  as  the  objects  of  God's  concern. 
They  took  the  centre  of  thought  and  rever- 
ence. Men  fought,  burned,  butchered  men 
for  the  sake  of  these  things.  It  is  a  pitiful 
story  of  a  fatal  misunderstanding.  Christ 
came  to  give  life  to  His  sheep,  but  the  shep- 
herds have  sometimes  killed  and  destroyed 
the  sheep  in  His  name.  The  Church  was 
idealized  into  something  holy,  without  spot 
or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  no  matter  how 
debased  and  unworthy  the  lives  of  the  men 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY   17 

who  constituted  its  membership  might  be. 
To  rend  the  Church  came  to  be  considered 
the  supreme  sin,  while  to  rend  a  good  man 
might  be  a  supreme  duty.  The  clerical  office 
and  acts  were  thought  to  be  holy  and  effica- 
cious no  matter  how  foul  the  clergyman  who 
officiated  might  be.  The  sacraments  were 
believed  to  exert  their  redemptive  and  saving 
efficacy  whether  the  recipients  of  these  insti- 
tutions ever  manifested  a  single  spiritual  trait 
that  should  characterize  the  redeemed  life. 
Indeed  the  fundamental  difference  between 
Catholicism  and  primitive  Christianity  lies 
just  here.  The  former  exploited  holy  insti- 
tutions, while  the  latter  produced  holy  men  ; 
the  former  placed  the  institutions  in  the 
centre  of  thought  and  effort  making  men 
serve  the  institutions,  while  the  latter  put  men 
at  the  centre  and  sought  to  make  the  institu- 
tions serve  men. 

Protestantism  largely  shook  off  the  insti- 
tutional Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages; 
the  Catholics,  both  Roman  and  Greek,  still 
cling  to  it  as  tenaciously  as  ever.  But  the 
Protestant  emancipation  was  only  partial. 
Who  will  assert  that  all  Protestant  preachers 
are  even  to-day  consciously  putting  man 
and  his  service  at  the  centre  and  heart  of 
their  thought  and   eflort?    With  some  the 


18  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

maintenance  of  a  certain  type  of  theology  is 
still  the  supreme  duty  of  the  ministerial  life. 
**  Contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints,"  is  often  on  their 
lips  ;  and  by  "  faith  "  they  mean  a  system  of 
theology,  a  meaning  which  is  hardly  found 
in  the  Scriptures.  The  spirit  of  martyrdom 
(to  the  other  man)  is  under  these  circum- 
stances often  present  and  manifest.  Now, 
sound,  orthodox  theology  is  in  itself  surely 
not  a  bad  or  dangerous  thing.  But  when 
a  minister  comes  to  think  of  theology  rather 
than  men,  it  has  become  to  him  a  most  per- 
nicious thing,  no  matter  how  "sound"  it 
may  be.  On  the  other  hand  the  blessed 
results  which  follow  the  policy  of  giving 
supreme  attention  to  men  is  seen  in  the 
success  of  many  men  of  moderate  ability 
and  defective  education.  They  do  not  suc- 
ceed because  they  are  ignorant  or  have  not 
studied  in  the  schools,  for  ignorance  is  al- 
ways a  serious  weakness ;  it  is  rather  because 
the  lack  of  learning  has  compelled  them  to 
appeal  directly  to  men.  An  education  may 
be  given  and  received  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  shackle  rather  than  to  liberate  the  mind 
and  heart,  and  this  is  a  fatal  state  for  a 
preacher. 

As  with  theology  so  with  the  other  institu- 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY  19 

tions  of  religion.  Man  may  be  forgotten  in 
the  glorification  of  the  ordinance.  The  spirit 
of  love  and  service  is  then  likely  to  take  its 
flight  and  its  place  be  filled  by  a  spirit  of 
suspicion  and  fear.  Persecution  has  arisen, 
and  the  most  cruel,  inhuman  and  destructive 
treatment  of  men  has  been  deemed  justifiable 
if  thereby  recognized  ecclesiastical  order, 
custom  and  belief  could  be  the  more  securely 
established. 

This  attitude  as  to  the  relative  position  and 
importance  of  men  and  religious  institutions, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  is  the  complete 
negation,  the  exact  contradiction,  of  the  at- 
titude of  Jesus.  Man  held  and  filled  the 
whole  field  of  His  vision.  His  thought  and 
effort  were  directed  towards  man^s  welfare  on 
earth  and  his  full  salvation  in  heaven.  So 
far  as  the  record  informs  us  He  never  per- 
formed a  single  ceremonial  act  prescribed  for 
His  people,  nor  charged  one  individual  to  do 
so  as  a  religious  duty.  He  used  the  Sabbath 
to  attend  the  synagogue  worship,  but  never 
once  indicated  that  there  was  any  sacredness 
or  virtue  in  the  Sabbath,  apart  from  the  use 
that  was  made  of  the  day.  The  annual  fes- 
tivals He  attended  as  a  boy  with  His  parents 
and  later  in  His  public  ministry  on  His  own 
initiative ;  but   it   is  perfectly  apparent  that 


20  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

these  visits  were  for  purposes  of  learning 
and  instruction.  He  once  bade  a  man  who 
had  just  been  cleansed  of  leprosy  go,  show 
himself  to  the  priest  and  offer  the  gifts  pre- 
scribed by  Moses  for  the  newly  cleansed 
leper ;  but  it  was  "  for  a  testimony  unto 
them,'*  and  obviously  had  no  other  signifi- 
cance in  the  thought  of  Jesus  than  that  it  was 
a  legal  requirement  which  must  be  met  before 
this  man  could  again  have  access  to  his 
friends  and  society.  Holy  places,  holy  days 
and  seasons,  sacrifices,  circumcision,  dis- 
tinctions in  foods,  all  disappear  in  that  one 
great  saying  of  His,  "  God  is  a  spirit :  and 
they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  in 
spirit  and  truth."  If  this  be  true,  then  a 
religion  acceptable,  to  the  Lord  God  can  be 
universal ;  and  on  no  other  terms  could  this 
be  possible.  The  Jewish  institutions  would 
have  nullified  all  missionary  zeal,  and  con- 
demned Christianity  to  the  position  of  a 
Jewish  sect  without  power  or  outlook.  In 
the  light  of  that  statement  of  Jesus  the  insti- 
tutions of  religion  may  have  value,  but  they 
can  no  longer  be  considered  essential.  Spir- 
itual worship  holds  that  place.  Jesus  did 
not  attempt  to  abolish  the  Jewish  institutions  ; 
but  He  did  largely  ignore  them  and  did 
Utter  truths   which    under   the    providential 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY  21 

leading  of  the  Holy  Spirit  necessarily  had 
the  effect  of  abolishing  them  among  His 
followers.  One  who  studies  this  question 
closely  will  be  deeply  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  throughout  His  life  Jesus  was  think- 
ing of  men  and  cared  nothing  for  institu- 
tions except  as  they  served  men.  It  is  un- 
thinkable that  He  should  ever  have  sanctioned 
religious  persecution,  that  is,  the  destruction 
of  a  man  for  the  sake  of  an  institution.  He 
cared  for  the  man  more  than  the  institution. 

It  was  this  turning  away  from  ecclesiasti- 
cism  to  man,  from  ceremonial  to  life,  which 
brought  Him  into  hopeless  conflict  with  the 
Jewish  authorities  and  at  the  same  time  gave 
Him  His  popularity  with  the  masses.  Never 
before  had  the  people  heard  a  teacher  who 
cared  more  for  men  than  he  did  for  things. 
It  was  this  element  which  gave  His  message 
its  note  of  universality,  vitality  and  authority, 
its  applicability  to  every  age  and  people. 
Because  of  this  quality  it  is  heard  still  to-day 
with  as  much  avidity  as  in  the  hour  of  its 
original  delivery. 

To-day  the  world  is  impressed  with  this 
characteristic  of  Jesus  perhaps  as  never  be- 
fore. The  whole  atmosphere  of  our  modern 
life  is  a-tingle  with  the  ideal  of  human  service. 
Socialist  meetings,  labour  unions,  the  daily 


22  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

press,  the  political  spellbinder,  all  manner 
of  men,  proclaim  the  service  of  man  as  the 
supreme  object  of  life.  The  pulpits  resound 
with  the  awakened  sense  of  responsibility  for 
the  moral  and  social  condition  of  men. 
There  is  heard  less  of  theology,  church  gov- 
ernment and  such  matters  than  ever  before. 
This  is  a  distinct  return  towards  the  purposes 
and  the  methods  of  the  Master  Himself.  The 
Protestant  churches  generally,  and  even  the 
Catholic  Church,  seem  to  have  awakened  to 
the  fact  that  they  have  wandered  far  from  the 
path  of  human  service  which  their  Master 
trod,  far  from  the  spirit  and  purposes  which 
He  manifested,  having  laid  disproportionate 
emphasis  upon  institutional  matters.  Things 
have  been  exalted  into  the  position  given  by 
our  Lord  to  man.  The  masses  have  left  the 
churches  because  the  churches  have  left  the 
masses.  The  thrill  and  pulsation  of  life  have 
not  been  felt  in  their  bosom.  Vital  interests 
have  been  sacrificed  for  ecclesiastical  This 
failure  has  not  been  equally  flagrant  in  all, 
but  no  church  has  been  guiltless.  The  self- 
ish interests  of  ecclesiasticism  have  more  or 
less  pushed  into  the  background  the  vital 
interests  of  men. 

What  we  need  to  do  to-day  is  to  set  man 
where  Jesus  set  him,   in  the  very  centre  of 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY  23 

our  thought  and  action  as  ministers.  We 
must  come  to  realize  that  not  the  Sabbath 
only  but  also  all  else  that  we  call  religious 
**  was  made  for  man."  Sacred  days,  sacred 
places,  sacred  ordinances,  are  sacred  only 
because  they  serve  men  ;  the  moment  they 
cease  to  serve  man  they  cease  to  please  God, 
no  matter  how  painfully  exact  may  be  the 
ritual.  Ecclesiastical  actions  must  be  Scrip- 
tural in  their  purpose  and  relative  position  as 
well  as  in  their  form,  if  they  are  to  accom- 
plish the  Master's  will  in  them.  We  can 
serve  God  only  as  we  serve  men.  To  be- 
lieve that  the  mere  performance  of  a  cere- 
mony in  a  Scriptural  form  is  to  please  God 
is  to  descend  to  a  pagan  view  of  religious 
ceremonial,  where  it  is  thought  that  the  mere 
performance  of  the  act  is  the  necessary  thing. 
But  Christ's  view  of  the  basis  on  which  His 
ostensible  followers  will  be  judged  at  the  last 
day  is  summed  up  in  the  words,  *'  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these  My  brethren, 
even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  Me,"  and,  "  In- 
asmuch as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  these 
least,  ye  did  it  not  unto  Me."  There  is  here 
no  hint  of  ecclesiasticism.  Human  service 
fills  the  whole  vision  of  the  Judge  upon  His 
throne.  Men  go  to  the  right  or  the  left 
according  as  they  have  served  their  fellow 


24  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

men,  in  ministering  to  whom  they  at  the 
same  time  ministered  unto  Him.  This  is  not 
to  say  that  the  Quakers  are  right  and  all  the 
institutions  of  religion  are  useless  and  there- 
fore to  be  abolished.  Jesus  definitely  ap- 
proved them  and  therefore  they  cannot  be 
useless.  It  means  only  that  the  essential 
things  are  not  ceremonial  and  ecclesiastical, 
but  human  and  vital. 

Let  us  preachers,  then,  adopt  the  vital 
ideal  in  the  ministry.  Not  the  preservation 
and  propagation  of  theological  systems  and 
ecclesiastical  customs  and  organizations,  but 
fellowship  with  God  in  the  task  of  producing 
a  perfect  humanity,  is  our  work.  We  have 
been  called  by  our  Father  into  that  blessed 
partnership  of  service  whereby  we  toil  to 
help  each  individual  to  realize  to  the  fullest 
his  possibilities,  and  the  race  to  be  more  and 
more.  Let  us  labour  to  make  great  men, 
good  men,  brotherly  men — "  till,"  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Paul,  "  we  all  attain  .  .  .  unto 
a  full-grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ."  Let  us 
realize  that  we  are  not  called  of  God  prima- 
rily to  serve  a  denomination,  a  church,  a 
system  or  ourselves,  but  men.  Let  us  stead- 
ily remember  that  the  Lord  said,  "  I  came 
that  they  may  have  life,"  and  that  He  sent 


THE  VITAL  IDEAL  IN  THE  MINISTRY  25 

us  forth  into  the  same  task  that  His  Father 
had  given  Him,  "  As  the  Father  hath  sent 
Me,  even  so  send  I  you." 

This  does  not  mean  that  religion  is  to  have 
to  do  wholly  with  this  world,  and  that  the  fu- 
ture is  no  longer  to  be  looked  to  as  a  motive. 
It  is  only  an  effort  to  look  at  human  life  as  a 
whole,  and  to  act  upon  the  faith  that  the  life 
must  get  right  here  if  it  is  to  be  right  on  the 
other  side  of  death.  Having  received  a  spirit- 
ual birth  the  soul  should  go  on  growing  towards 
full  manhood  in  this  life,  and  who  knows  if  it 
will  not  continue  to  develop  in  the  genial  atmos- 
phere of  the  redeemed  in  heaven  throughout  an 
endless  eternity  ?  There  all  ecclesiasticism  will 
disappear  in  the  glory  of  God's  presence,  and 
here  it  must  be  subordinate,  being  employed 
to  illuminate  and  not  to  obscure  the  face  of  the 
Father,  or  the  need  of  men.  Only  by  adopt- 
ing this  vital  ideal  in  the  ministry  can  we  prop- 
erly glorify  God  and  adequately  serve  man. 

This  ideal  will  bless  the  preacher  and  make 
fruitful  his  work ;  the  details  of  method  will 
work  themselves  out  in  satisfactory  ways.  It 
is  the  efficiency  program.  It  means  that 
neither  time  nor  thought  will  be  expended  on 
hopeless  or  unimportant  matters,  but  the 
whole  energy  will  be  directed  to  the  produc- 
tion of  complete  life  in  the  whole  of  humanity. 


II 

THE   MINISTER   IN   THE  MODERN  WORLD 

THERE  is  at  present  much  discussion 
of  the  special  characteristics  of  the 
age  in  which  we  live  and  the  difficul- 
ties which  these  conditions  create  for  the 
modern  preacher.  The  age  is  thought  to  be 
marked  off  sharply  from  all  preceding  ages  in 
many  ways.  Its  knowledge  of  and  power  over 
material  nature  ;  the  gradual  disappearance  of 
the  wonder  and  mystery  of  the  world  through 
the  explanation  of  natural  phenomena ;  its 
materialism  and  secularism ;  its  passion  for 
testable  knowledge  and  palpable  reality  ;  its 
historical  and  critical  spirit ;  its  skepticism 
and  doubt — these  and  other  characteristics 
are  thought  to  be  markedly  pronounced  at 
the  present  time  and  to  generate  an  atmos- 
phere that  is  particularly  uncongenial  to 
Christianity.  The  peculiarities  due  to  the 
intellectual  characteristics  of  the  age  are 
thought  to  be  emphasized  and  strengthened 
by  the  social,  industrial  and  commercial  pe- 
culiarities. Men  live  and  toil  under  social 
26 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    27 

and  industrial  conditions  different  from  any 
that  have  heretofore  obtained  in  the  entire 
history  of  the  world.  The  tremendous  and 
increasing  use  of  machinery,  the  massing  of 
capital  and  the  combination  of  working  men, 
the  swiftness  of  communication  and  trans- 
portation, and  many  other  things  have  created 
a  complexity  of  life  and  mental  traits  never 
before  known.  So  it  is  asserted.  To  meet 
these  conditions  it  is  implied  if  not  asserted 
that  we  must  have  a  new  gospel  and  a  new 
preacher  and  a  new  preaching. 

Beyond  question  there  is  something,  possi- 
bly much,  in  these  contentions  as  to  the 
peculiarities  of  the  present  age.  There  has 
been  a  material,  intellectual,  and  to  some  extent 
a  spiritual,  revolution  in  progress  throughout 
the  last  century.  And  yet  it  is  doubtful  if 
there  has  been  such  a  change  as  is  often  as- 
sumed. Whatever  superficial  modifications 
have  been  wrought  in  the  characteristics  of 
men,  fundamentally  they  remain  the  same. 
Those  common  qualities  that  make  them 
human  beings  have  continued  and  will  per- 
sist substantially  unchangeable. 

This  fact  is  of  the  highest  importance  to 
the  preacher.  In  the  midst  of  the  hubbub 
about  **  the  modern  man,"  "  the  modern  mind," 
"  the  present  age,"  he  should  never  forget 


28  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

that  the  essential,  fundamental  qualities  of 
human  nature  are  universal  and  practically 
unchangeable.  The  avenues  of  approach  to 
the  life  will  change,  but  the  spiritual  needs 
and  their  remedies,  while  differing  in  degree 
and  application,  must  always  remain  sub- 
stantially the  same.  The  preacher,  more 
than  other  men,  perhaps,  needs  to  remember 
that  the  things  which  divide  age  from  age, 
race  from  race,  class  from  class,  country  from 
country,  sect  from  sect,  are  accidental,  super- 
ficial and  ephemeral.  They  are  the  most  ob- 
vious marks  of  individual  differences  and 
class  distinctions,  but  they  change.  They 
are  to  be  considered  only  as  helps  or  hin- 
drances in  reaching  deeper  to  the  essential 
things.  Catholic,  Protestant,  Jew  and  pagan, 
rich  and  poor,  working  man  and  capitalist, 
farmer  and  clerk,  all  are  moved  by  essentially 
the  same  passions,  however  much  they  may 
differ  in  appearance  and  externals.  They  are 
subject  to  the  same  temptations  and  sins, 
conscience  thunders  its  prohibitions  and  com- 
mands in  the  ears  of  all  even  if  with  unequal 
power,  the  same  fears  and  hopes  and  loves 
darken  or  irradiate  all  lives.  Men  love  and 
hate,  hope  and  fear,  sin  and  repent,  fall, 
struggle  and  rise  again  or  go  down  to  final 
and  irrevocable  ruin  as  they  did  in  the  days 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODEEN  WORLD    29 

of  Abraham  and  before ;  and  this  they  will 
continue  to  do  to  the  end  of  time  just  because 
they  are  men.  The  great  books  of  the  most 
remote  antiquity  are  strangely  modern  when 
they  deal  with  the  human  heart  and  life. 
Jewish  psalm  and  Greek  drama  express  alike 
the  passions  of  the  human  heart  to-day  as  they 
did  centuries  ago.  They  are  in  fact  timeless 
simply  because  man  is  in  essentials  changeless. 
Traditions,  culture,  environment,  religion,  oc- 
cupation, age — a  thousand  superficial  things 
change,  but  the  essential  elements  of  human- 
ity are  universal  and  permanent.  Men  are 
first  of  all  men,  and  afterwards  mechanics  or 
millionaires,  Jews  or  Anglo-Saxons,  learned 
or  boorish. 

Now  the  preacher^s  business  is  to  deal 
with  the  very  deepest  things  in  human 
nature,  the  essentials  that  are  to  abide  all  the 
shocks  that  life  and  death  itself  may  bring. 
He  needs,  therefou  ->  remember  above 
everything  else  that  his  '•ers  are  first  of  all 
human  beings,  men  and  nen,  endowed 
with  all  the  common  human  t.  ""s,  and  after 
that  members  of  this  or  that  race,  ^nfessing 
this  or  that  creed,  engaged  in  thib  r  t^at 
calling.  The  minister  that  speaks 
popular  heart  is  the  one  who  knov  .o\ 
penetrate  beyond  superficial  differ      :^s  a 


30  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

stir  the  universal  human  emotions.  He  does 
not  deal  with  men  primarily  as  working  men, 
bankers,  merchants,  Italians,  Jews  or  Ameri- 
cans, but  as  men  with  common  needs,  hopes, 
fears  and  sins.  Whatever  has  been  essential 
to  any  age  or  race  is  essential  to  every  age 
and  race  ;  what  has  never  been  essential  will 
never  be  essential.  Only  the  approach  to  men 
changes. 

This  fact,  namely  that  the  preacher  needs 
to  consider  men  primarily  and  constantly  as 
men  with  common  needs  and  possibilities, 
can  scarcely  be  overemphasized.  And  yet 
it  must  also  be  remembered  that  age  and 
country  have  their  own  peculiarities,  more  or 
less  marked,  which  materially  affect  the  man- 
ner and  readiness  with  which  the  Gospel  is 
accepted.  Therefore  the  preacher  must  strive 
to  understand  his  own  age  and  field,  both 
their  essentials  and  their  peculiarities — his 
age  as  it  agrees  with  and  differs  from  preced- 
ing ages.  ThiF  he  must  do  so  as  to  know 
how  to  appro:  loh  the  soul  with  least  difficulty 
and  commend  with  greatest  force  his  Gospel 
— the  e^^ential,  eternal,  unchangeable  Gospel 
— to  the  men  of  his  own  day.  The  non- 
esf  ^iitial  but  important  accidents  of  life  are 
constantly  changing  and  together  they  con- 
stitute the  field  through  which  approach  to 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    31 

the  soul  must  be  made.  Here  there  is  need 
for  constant  vigilance  and  ready  adaptive- 
ness.  The  greatest,  most  successful  and  in- 
fluential of  all  Christian  preachers  said  of  his 
message,  "We  preach  Christ  crucified." 
This  he  continued  to  do  when  he  knew  that 
it  was  "unto  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and 
unto  Gentiles  foolishness,"  because  he  also 
knew  that  there  is  for  the  universal  religious 
need  but  one  remedy,  the  crucified  Christ. 
To-day  one  shudders  to  think  what  the 
history  of  the  world  might  have  been  had 
he  given  way  before  the  popular  demand  for 
something  else.  On  another  occasion,  when 
he  was  almost  crushed  by  a  tremendous 
crisis,  he  cries  with  burning  passion,  "  Though 
we  or  an  angel  from  heaven  should  preach 
unto  you  any  gospel  other  than  that  which 
we  preached  unto  you,  let  him  be  anathema." 
Nothwithstanding  this  passionate  grip  on 
unchanging  essentials,  he  was  the  most  adapt- 
able of  men  with  regard  to  ..nethods.  Or  it 
would  be  truer,  perhaps,  to  say  that  just  be- 
cause of  his  firm  grasp  of  a  few  essentials  he 
could  easily  adapt  himself  in  method.  Of  his 
methods  he  said,  "  To  the  Jews  I  became  as  a 
Jew,  that  I  might  gain  the  Jews  ;  to  them  that 
are  under  the  law,  as  under  the  law,  not  being 
myself  under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them 


32  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

that  are  under  the  law ;  to  them  that  are  without 
law,  as  without  law,  not  being  without  law  to 
God,  but  under  law  to  Christ,  that  I  might 
gain  them  that  are  without  law.  To  the 
weak  I  became  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the 
weak :  I  am  become  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  I  may  by  all  means  save  some.  And  I 
do  all  things  for  the  Gospel's  sake."  In 
these  terse  sentences  we  have  one  of  the  most 
striking  statements  of  complete  adaptiveness 
in  all  literature.  There  is  a  great  and  holy 
purpose,  the  salvation  of  men,  to  be  attained 
by  one  sole  means,  the  preaching  of  the  one 
eternal  Gospel,  but  this  is  to  be  done  by  an 
endless  adaptation  of  method.  Smaller  men, 
who  could  not  understand  the  unifying  prin- 
ciple of  Paul's  life,  must  have  asked  them- 
selves whether  he  had  any  principles  whatso- 
ever. Acting  now  as  a  Jew  and  again  as 
a  Gentile,  now  as  weak  and  again  as  strong, 
he  must  have  been  regarded  as  utterly  in- 
consistent, when  in  reality  it  was  his  single- 
hearted  devotion  to  the  one  essential  thing 
which  gave  him  freedom  of  movement  in 
regard  to  methods.  Most  of  us  grasp  too 
many  things,  and,  therefore,  grasp  none  with 
great  firmness.  We  speedily  find  ourselves 
in  a  straight  jacket  of  rules  which  hamper 
movement  and  render  effective  service  im- 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    33 

possible.  Grip  to  the  heart  of  things  and 
hold  immovably  there  ;  but  be  equally  ready 
to  adapt  in  other  matters.  We  do  not  suffi- 
ciently distinguish  between  the  goal  and  the 
method  of  reaching  it ;  we  are  as  anxious  to 
get  it  done  in  a  certain  way  as  to  get  it  done. 
Paul  sought  to  understand  each  class,  sharply 
differentiated  as  they  were  in  the  Roman 
world,  and  by  means  of  that  knowledge  open 
the  way  for  the  Gospel.  To  the  Jew  he  be- 
came as  a  Jew,  to  the  Greek  as  a  Greek,  to 
those  under  the  law  as  under  the  law,  to  those 
without  law  as  without  law,  to  the  weak  as 
weak. 

If  we  are  to  follow  this  exalted  example 
even  distantly,  we  must  seek  to  understand 
not  only  our  age  as  a  whole,  but  also  each 
class  to  which  we  minister ;  and  not  only 
must  we  understand,  we  must  have  the  will 
and  the  ability  to  adapt  our  methods  to  the 
changing  conditions. 

A  brief  study  of  some  of  the  characteristics 
of  our  age  may,  therefore,  be  of  value  to  us. 
The  difficulty  of  understanding  the  period  in 
the  midst  of  which  one  lives  is  well  known, 
and  for  this  reason  as  well  as  because  of  its 
great  importance  the  life  about  him  will  be 
the  object  of  the  preacher^s  constant  and  most 
searching  observation  and  study.     The  fol- 


34  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

lowing  short  study  can  be  and  is  intended  to 
be  merely  suggestive. 

I.  For  its  effect  on  preaching  one  of  the 
most  striking  and  important  characteristics 
of  the  present  as  compared  with  the  past  is 
the  general  diffusion  of  education  and  intelli- 
gence and  the  consequent  comparative  inde- 
pendence of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life 
of  the  people.  The  public  state-supported 
school  has  well-nigh  banished  illiteracy,  and 
the  press,  supported  by  the  various  means  of 
transportation,  diffuses  information  every- 
where. Soon,  in  all  the  leading  nations  of 
the  earth,  every  individual  mentally  capable 
of  learning  to  read  will  be  enabled  and  even 
compelled  to  do  so.  The  daily  newspaper, 
the  weekly  and  monthly  magazine,  the  con- 
tinuous deluge  of  books,  spread  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  day's  doings  and  the  world's 
thought  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the 
land.  Both  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  true 
and  the  false,  travel  on  the  wings  of  the 
wind.  The  feverish  and  poisoned  breath  of 
the  city  blows  far  out  upon  the  land,  carrying 
its  load  of  smut  and  fouling  the  fair  face  of 
mountain,  valley  and  glen.  Knowledge  of 
all  the  doings  of  all  the  world  is  fast  becom- 
ing the  common  property  of  mankind.  The 
preacher  can  and  must  everywhere,  except 


MINISTEE  IN  THE  MODEEN  WOELD    35 

in  the  most  remote  and  inaccessible  regions, 
count  upon  a  general  acquaintance  with  the 
news  and  movements  of  the  day.  Granted 
that  much  of  this  information  is  superficial 
and  inadequate,  still  it  is  of  immense  impor- 
tance to  the  preacher  both  as  a  help  and  a 
hindrance.  He  cannot  escape  or  ignore  it. 
It  constandy  stares  him  in  the  face  and  de- 
mands consideration.  And  all  indications 
point  to  the  continuance  and  accentuation  of 
these  conditions.  The  preacher  of  to-day 
and  of  to-morrow  must  expect  to  address  a 
more  intelligent,  a  better  informed  and  a 
more  self-opinionated  congregation  than  the 
preacher  of  yesterday  was  called  to  stand 
before.  This  fact  both  simplifies  and  compli- 
cates his  problem.  A  certain  degree  of  intel- 
ligence is  necessary  to  any  adequate  appre- 
hension of  the  Gospel.  Where  Christianity 
finds  ignorant  savages  it  must  always  educate 
as  well  as  convert,  because  the  acceptance 
of  Christianity  and  the  living  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  is  a  rational  process.  In  so  far  the 
diffusion  of  intelligence  is  undoubtedly  help- 
ful. The  situation  demands  more  intelligent 
and  thoughtful  preaching,  but  it  also  ensures 
a  more  thoughtful  and  appreciative  hearing 
for  really  good  preaching.  It  requires  more 
mental  and  spiritual  power,  more  educational 


36  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

equipment  and  training  and  more  general 
information  on  the  part  of  the  preacher,  but 
it  also  assures  a  readier  response  to  preach- 
ing that  has  these  quaUties. 

On  the  other  hand  the  mental  alertness  of 
the  present  generation  materially  increases 
the  difficulties  of  the  poorly  equipped  and 
unsympathetic  preacher.  With  all  sense  of 
his  authority  as  an  ecclesiastic  gone,  with 
the  merest  schoolboy  in  his  congregation 
better  informed  about  the  world  we  live  in 
and  the  day's  doings  than  himself,  with  the 
consciousness  that  he  is  being  left  stranded 
by  the  rapidly  receding  waters  of  old  concep- 
tions, he  is  often  a  pitiable  figure.  He  is 
conscious  of  swift  change  in  progress  all 
about  him,  conscious  of  increasing  ineffi- 
ciency, without  being  able  to  understand  the 
causes  and  probable  outcome ;  he  is,  as  a 
consequence,  filled  with  anxiety,  fear  and 
suspicion,  and  is  liable  to  become  unsympa- 
thetic, morose  and  censorious,  thus  further 
unfitting  himself  to  cope  with  the  problems 
before  him. 

Again  the  press,  together  with  rapid  com- 
munication by  automobile,  trolley-car  and 
rail  disseminates  far  and  wide  among  the  peo- 
ple the  isms  and  perversions  of  Christianity 
which   used  to  be  largely   localized.      The 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    37 

poorly  equipped  preacher  is  thus  frequently 
brought  face  to  face  with  situations  and 
views  which  are  strange  to  him  and  difficult 
to  handle,  and  which  would  have  remained 
unknown  to  his  people  a  few  years  ago. 
Merrymakers  from  the  city  are  poured  into 
the  village  streets  to  disturb  the  Sabbath 
quiet  and  attract  the  worshippers,  to  distract 
if  not  to  debauch  the  quiet  ways  of  the  town. 

2.  Another  marked  characteristic  of  our 
age  is  its  scientific  temper.  Most  of  the 
natural  sciences  originated  in  the  last  century 
and  a  half  and  all  of  them  experienced  tre- 
mendous development.  They  have  estab- 
lished for  themselves  a  large  and  permanent 
place  in  the  curricula  of  all  types  of  educa- 
tional institutions,  thus  in  smaller  or  larger 
measure  displacing  studies  that  made  up  the 
older  courses  of  instruction.  The  modern 
mind,  in  so  far  as  it  is  educated,  is  largely 
made  by  science,  is  a  scientific  mind.  And 
even  outside  the  schools  there  is  a  pervasive 
scientific  atmosphere  and  attitude  which 
envelops  our  whole  life,  and  deeply  afFects 
the  uneducated  mind  as  well  as  the  educated. 

Some  of  the  striking  traits  of  this  state  of 
mind  are  its  passion  for  fact,  its  sense  of  uni- 
formity and  law,  its  attention  to  the  material 
world,  its  overweening  confidence  in  its  own 


38  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

methods  and  conclusions,  and  its  reduction 
of  the  field  of  the  unknown  where  wonder, 
myth  and  religion  were  once  supposed  to 
dwell.  The  scientifically  trained  man  has 
been  taught  above  all  else  to  seek,  test  and 
value  facts.  The  telescope,  the  microscope, 
the  spectrum,  the  test-tube,  every  known  de- 
vice for  discovering  and  testing  facts  have 
been  put  into  his  hands,  carrying  him  from 
the  unfathomable  depths  of  space  to  a  search 
for  the  invisible  germ  and  the  atom.  He  has 
been  taught  to  distrust  the  reliability  of  his 
own  senses,  to  test  again  and  again,  in  this 
way  and  that,  everything  which  seems  to  be 
a  fact  until  there  can  be  no  possibility  of 
doubt.  He  has  been  taught  to  doubt  in  order 
that  he  may  reach  certainty,  and  when  a  fact 
is  finally  established  beyond  all  possibility  of 
further  question,  he  recognizes  it  as  of  ulti- 
mate and  final  value.  Explanations  may  be 
wholly  or  partially  true  or  wholly  false  ;  they 
may  change  or  pass  away ;  but  a  fact  is  real, 
eternal,  so  it  is  claimed. 

A  mind  trained  in  this  way  in  the  class- 
room will  demand  reality  and  fact  in  relig- 
ion. It  will  probably  care  little  for  **the 
pomp  and  circumstance  "  of  religion,  but  the 
pragmatic  test  of  results  will  be  firmly  de- 
manded and  ruthlessly  applied.     Speculative 


MimSTEE  IN  THE  MODEEN  WOELD    39 

theology  will  not  greatly  impress  such  minds, 
since  it  is  only  the  attempted  and  varying 
explanation  of  alleged  facts.  The  past  will 
not  be  profoundly  reverenced,  because  these 
minds  have  worked  in  fields  of  present  real- 
ity. They  will  demand  that  the  preacher 
speak  to  them  with  something  of  the  assur- 
ance and  the  attitude  of  the  scientist.  Can 
he  do  it  ?  If  he  cannot  do  so,  is  there  much 
hope  that  he  can  influence  this  scientific 
age  ?  There  is  one  line  of  approach  and  de- 
fense where  the  preacher  stands  on  almost 
the  same  basis  as  the  scientific  man.  It  is 
by  way  of  the  vital,  of  the  experimental,  of 
life.  Can  he  speak  on  religious  questions 
from  his  own  experience?  Is  there  in  his 
own  heart's  consciousness  the  reality  of  re- 
ligion ?  Does  he  know  God,  not  alone  from 
tradition,  not  alone  through  nature,  history 
or  revelation,  not  as  a  demonstrated  proposi- 
tion, but  vitally  in  his  own  inner  personal  ex- 
perience ?  Is  the  life  of  God  consciously  in 
his  life  ?  Where  personal  experience  speaks 
the  human  heart  instinctively  responds.  Ex- 
perience is  a  psychological  fact  with  a  rec- 
ognizable scientific  basis  and  value.  The 
preacher  of  to-day  must  have  a  vital  experi- 
ence and  must  speak  a  vital  message  to  the 
lives  of  men  or  he  had  as  well  remain  silent. 


40  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

He  must  give  to  men  facts  in  religion  and 
to  these /ac^s  they  will  respond. 

Another  effect  of  scientific  study  is  the 
development  of  a  sense  of  law  and  order  in 
the  universe  until  many  men  find  great  diffi- 
culty in  believing  in  the  supernatural  and  the 
miraculous.  Indeed  with  them  the  miracu- 
lous is  itself  on  the  defensive  and  in  need  of 
an  apologetic  rather  than  itself  capable  of 
serving  as  an  apologetic  for  something  else. 
Recognizing  that  this  is  a  fact  what  is  to  be 
the  preacher's  attitude  to  the  question  ?  In 
view  of  the  difficulties  that  beset  the  modern 
preacher  from  this  direction  it  would  be  well 
for  him  to  remember  constantly  the  primary 
purpose  of  his  calling,  that  is  ministration  to 
the  life  of  his  hearers.  Let  him  remember 
that  his  primary  interest  is  not  in  the  defense 
of  miracle  or  the  propagation  of  any  given 
theory  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  universe. 
His  evangelical  doctrines  necessarily  involve 
belief  in  a  world-view  that  puts  God  in  and 
over  the  world,  able  to  do  in  and  with  it  what 
He  will ;  but  the  preacher's  task  is  not  pri- 
marily the  proclamation  and  enforcement  of 
a  world-view,  but  the  production  of  the  life 
of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men.  It  is  far  more 
important  that  he  should  be  able  to  imitate 
his  Master  in  living  and  speaking  in  the  con- 


MINISTEE  m  THE  MODEEN  WORLD    41 

sciousness  of  the  presence  and  fatherly  care 
of  God  than  that  he  should  be  continually 
thundering  an  apologetic  for  miracle  in  the 
ears  of  his  hearers.  It  is  equally  as  impor- 
tant that  he  should  be  able  to  see  God  in 
the  ordinary  and  the  usual  as  in  the  extraor- 
dinary, inexplicable  and  seemingly  super- 
natural. By  far  the  most  of  life  is  cast 
in  the  ordinary  and  the  usual,  and  if  God  be 
not  here  He  is  in  our  lives  little  indeed.  The 
preacher's  task  is  not  to  prove  that  God  is 
in  the  extraordinary,  but  to  produce  men 
whose  daily  lives  shall  be  an  experience  of 
God  in  the  ordinary  things  of  life — men 
whose  words,  deeds  and  thoughts  shall  be 
daily  pleasing  to  God.  Christianity  presup- 
poses miracle,  is  based  in  large  measure  on 
miracle  as  popularly  defined ;  the  Christian 
minister  believes  in  the  possibility  and  the 
fact  of  miracle  of  course.  But  he  is  not  pri- 
marily an  apologist  but  a  propagandist. 
Only  when  apology  is  itself  propaganda  can 
he  undertake  it ;  that  is  seldom. 

3.  Still  another  characteristic  of  our  age 
is  its  practical  bent.  It  demands  to  see  the 
practical  value  of  your  wares.  Its  philoso- 
phy is  pragmatism  and  it  seeks  to  apply  the 
pragmatic  method  to  everything  else.  Cut 
bono  is   its   ever   recurring   question.      The 


42  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

preacher  should  welcome  this  test  with  joy. 
**  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  was 
recognized  long  ago  by  the  Master  Himself 
as  a  fair  test.  If  Christianity  cannot  bring 
forth  the  fruits  of  normal,  contented,  happy, 
useful  and  efficient  living  in  the  world,  it 
can  have  little  claim  upon  the  men  of  this 
life  and  little  promise  of  the  life  to  come. 
Christianity  can  stand  the  test  of  results. 
Its  history  has  many  dark  and  blood-stained 
pages,  but  the  luminous  predominates.  The 
Christian  world  was  ever  better  than  the 
non-Christian  world.  It  has  given  the  world 
its  saints  and  martyrs,  its  discoverers  and 
inventors,  its  scholars  and  thinkers,  its  lead- 
ers in  all  lines  of  endeavour.  In  the  midst  of 
grossness,  materialism,  vice  and  despair  it 
has  ever  kept  the  lamp  of  faith,  hope  and 
love  burning.  Christians  have  been  the 
knights  of  the  spiritual,  conserving,  reviv- 
ing, reforming,  improving  and  propagating 
civilization.  Not  all  Christians  have  fol- 
lowed the  star,  but  those  who  followed  the 
star  have  been  Christians.  To-day  the  same 
blessed  fruits  of  holy  and  useful  living  con- 
tinue to  appear.  The  drunkard  is  made 
sober,  the  thief  becomes  a  benefactor,  the 
greedy  capitalist  is  converted  into  a  philan- 
thropist.    Read  Begbie's  **  Twice-born  Men  " 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    43 

and  '*  Souls  in  Action."  Here  the  power  of 
Christ  to  redeem  the  debased  is  seen,  but 
vastly  more  important  than  these  abnormal 
cases  is  the  myriad  army  of  men  and  women 
who  are  daily  sustained  by  this  same  Gospel 
in  a  life  adorned  with  Christian  virtue.  The 
fruits  of  Christian  work  can  be  judged  by 
the  standard  of  human  perfection  or  by  the 
actual  condition  of  men  where  the  Gospel 
has  not  gone  or  is  rejected.  The  latter  is 
manifestly  the  more  just  and  fruitful.  Chris- 
tians are  not  perfect  and  are  usually  very 
conscious  of  their  imperfection.  Indeed  one 
of  the  most  important  services  which  Chris- 
tianity renders  men  is  the  creation  in  them 
of  the  consciousness  of  their  unworthiness, 
and  the  stimulation  in  them  of  the  desire 
and  the  ability  to  strive  for  and  attain  the 
better.  They  are  imperfect,  but  on  the  aver- 
age they  are  vastly  better  than  the  average 
of  the  men  who  are  not  Christians.  The 
leavening  effect  of  Christianity  can  best  be 
seen,  perhaps,  on  the  mission  fields.  The 
fruits  of  the  Gospel  there  stand  out  in  all 
their  luminous  glory  and  beauty  against  the 
dark  background  of  the  surrounding  heath- 
enism from  which  the  Christians  come. 

The  practical  spirit  of  our  age  can  be  in  a 
measure  satisfied  by  the  fruits  of  Christianity, 


44  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

if  we  ourselves  can  only  come  to  realize  that 
Christian  fruits  are  to  be  produced  in  the 
sphere  of  human  life,  and  bend  our  energies 
to  the  task  of  their  production  in  this  vital 
field.  The  real  Christian  fruits  are  not  in 
theology,  forms  of  worship,  systems  of  church 
polity,  but  in  the  lives  of  men.  Show  this 
practical  world  beneficent  results  in  the  lives 
of  men,  and  it  will  think  Christianity  worth 
while. 

4.  Again  ours  is  an  age  when  all  questions 
are  approached  from  the  historic  standpoint. 
Men  are  not  content  with  knowing  a  certain 
opinion  or  practice  as  it  now  is ;  they  insist 
on  asking  how  and  when  it  came  to  be  so — 
what  forces  created  it,  what  opposition  was 
made  to  it,  what  else  has  been  related  to  it. 
Many  a  hoary  opinion  and  practice  has  felt 
the  seriousness  of  the  strain  put  upon  it  by 
this  method  of  study.  Dogma  has  been 
compelled  to  justify  itself  not  only  to  reason 
but  also  to  historical  criticism — a  test  which 
has  in  many  cases  been  much  more  difficult 
to  stand.  To  the  acid  of  historical  criticism 
hoary  frauds  like  the  Isadorian  decretals 
have  been  compelled  to  yield  and  admit 
that  they  were  frauds  when  nothing  else 
could  have  effected  their  dissolution.  With 
this  rise  of  historical  studies  has   come  the 


MINISTEE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    46 

comparative  and  historical  treatment  of  re- 
ligion, enabling  and  even  compelling  us  to 
understand,  to  evaluate,  and  appreciate  the 
content,  power  and  significance  of  our  own 
religion  over  against  others  more  thoroughly 
than  we  had  before  done.  Apologetics  are 
being  recast  in  the  light  of  this  knowledge 
and  in  response  to  this  method.  We  are 
being  forced  back  upon  the  spiritual  realities 
of  primitive  Christianity,  the  essentials  of 
our  faith.  The  barnacles  of  centuries  are 
being  cleared  away  from  the  keel  of  the  old 
ship  of  Zion  that  she  may  plow  the  main  of 
the  world's  life  with  more  even  keel  and 
swifter  course.  As  the  unessential  is  cleared 
away  we  shall  have  more  time  and  oppor- 
tunity for  the  essential  and  vital.  The 
preacher  should  not  fear  but  rather  welcome 
the  historic  method,  and  spirit.  They  are 
his  allies  in  escaping  from  and  combatting 
error,  and  clearing  the  way  for  vital  thought 
and  vital  effort.  As  long  as  his  aim  is  vital 
there  is  nothing  to  fear  from  these  modern 
tendencies.  It  is  only  when  he  is  thinking 
chiefly  of  the  preservation  of  received  and 
established  customs  and  thought  simply  be- 
cause they  have  been  handed  down  by  tra- 
dition that  he  need  have  any  trepidation. 
One  thing  the  preacher  should  never  forget 


46  A  VITAL  Ml^'ISTBY 

is  that  the  cure  for  wrong  conclusions,  mis- 
leading and  dangerous  errors,  is  further  and 
more  earnest  investigation,  and  never  the 
discouragement  or  suppression  of  freedom  of 
thought  and  investigation.  "Nothing  is 
finally  setded  undl  it  is  setded  right."  Noth- 
ing but  truth  can  finally  endure  the  fires  of 
investigation  and  criticism. 

5.  The  final  characteristic  of  our  age  to 
be  mentioned  here  is  its  moral,  social  and 
philanthropic  earnestness  and  striving.  It  is 
sadly  true  that  vice  was  perhaps  never  before 
so  organized  and  commercialized.  Our  great 
cities  show  depths  of  infamy  and  degradation 
that  have  hardly  been  surpassed  in  history. 
Conditions  are  such  as  to  give  anxiety  to  every 
patriot  and  lover  of  his  kind,  not  to  speak  of 
devoutly  religious  men  who  have  additional 
reasons  for  deep  concern.  But  to  be  set  over 
against  these  deep  dark  shadows  there  is 
much  that  is  luminous.  Never  before,  per- 
haps, has  there  been  so  much  willingness  to 
know  the  real  condition  of  men  and  so  much 
effort  to  ameliorate  that  condition.  All  public 
men  have  suddenly  become  preachers  of 
righteousness  and  social  service.  News- 
papers, educators,  statesmen,  business  and 
professional  men,  labouring  men,  socialists, 
all  are  unwearied  in  the  ceaseless  assertion  of 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    47 

the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  necessity  for 
the  application  of  the  Golden  Rule  in  all  the 
affairs  of  life.  Along  these  lines  the  appeals 
of  the  pulpit  are  powerfully  reenforced  by 
nearly  all  the  agencies  of  publicity  now- 
operating  among  men.  Even  the  whiskey 
trade  sometimes  feels  compelled  to  attempt 
the  defense  of  itself  on  Christian  principles, 
and  prates  of  the  poor  man's  club  and  need 
of  recreation.  In  fact  it  is  in  some  quarters 
openly  and  vehemently  charged  that  the  pul- 
pit is  badly  behind  the  age  in  its  thought  con- 
cerning the  welfare  of  men,  that  the  Church 
is  either  a  hindrance  or  a  negligible  factor  in 
the  fight  for  better  living  conditions.  It  is 
said  that  Christians  are  so  deeply  interested 
in  the  other  world  that  they  have  no  time  for 
thought  about  means  for  making  this  one 
better.  Leading  reformers  can  write  whole 
books  in  advocacy  of  moral  and  social  reforms 
with  scarcely  a  reference  to  the  Church  as  a 
force  to  be  utilized. 

And  yet  every  one  acquainted  with  Chris- 
tian history  knows  that  the  moral,  intellectual 
and  social  conditions  of  mankind  have  not 
been  overlooked.  Christian  faith  holds  that 
man's  soul  is  immortal,  that  an  eternity  of 
existence  lies  before  him,  and  it  has  striven 
to  prepare  him  for  that  reality,  which  tran- 


48  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

scends  all  others  if  it  be  a  reality.  And  yet 
it  never  forgot  man's  present  condition.  It 
is  true  that  the  Church  has  usually  pursued 
the  policy  of  cure  rather  than  that  of  preven- 
tion. But  in  this  mistaken  attitude  it  has 
been  in  accord  with  all  similar  institutions. 
Not  until  very  recent  years  has  the  prophy- 
lactic treatment  of  the  ills  of  society  come 
into  vogue,  and  it  is  still  the  physician's  chief 
business  to  heal  rather  than  prevent  disease. 
All  through  the  centuries  the  Church  has 
built  and  conducted  schools,  hospitals  and 
other  beneficent  institutions  when  there  would 
have  been  none,  so  far  as  we  can  know,  but 
for  the  Church.  Indeed  till  within  the  last 
century  and  a  half  the  Church  continued  to 
be  almost  the  sole  benefactor  of  weak,  igno- 
rant and  suffering  humanity,  and  even  now 
these  blessed  institutions  and  social  strivings 
are  not  found  beyond  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  Christian  lands  society  has  be- 
come so  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  Christ 
that  it  now  does  chiefly  through  the  state 
and  the  municipality  what  the  Church  alone 
once  did  for  the  uplift  of  humanity.  This 
revolution  in  the  methods  of  doing  benevolent 
work  has  been  made  necessary  by  the  relig- 
ious changes  which  have  been  ushered  in 
with   modern   times.      Religious   toleration, 


MINISTEE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    49 

which  is  the  policy  of  all  modern  Christian 
states,  has  left  a  large  part  of  the  population 
outside  all  church  relations  and  obligations  ; 
denominationalism  has  divided  the  religious 
forces  and  the  state  has  sequestrated  ecclesias- 
tical property  until  there  is  no  religious  body 
representative  of  the  whole  of  society  and  able 
to  meet  society's  needs  as  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  could  do.  The  Church  is  no 
longer  coterminous  with  society  and  yet  all 
society  is  vitally  related  to  all  benevolent 
work.  Consequently  the  state,  which  is 
the  only  institution  which  represents  the 
whole  of  society,  both  in  its  needs  and 
resources,  has  taken  over  the  major  portion 
of  this  benevolent  work.  And  yet  even 
to-day  nine-tenths  of  the  world's  benevolence 
and  benefactions  are  the  work  of  Christians, 
and  hosts  of  men  and  women  who  repudiate 
Christianity  are  the  direct  products  and  bene- 
ficiaries of  the  religion  they  reject.  The 
benevolent  atheist,  in  so  far  as  he  exists  at  all, 
is  distincdy  a  product  of  this  age,  and  with 
the  death  of  the  Christianity  he  hates  would 
lose  all  the  goodness  he  boasts.  Christianity 
has  generated  the  spiritual  power  and  fra- 
ternal spirit  which  non-Christian  society  is 
using  and  boasting. 

For  the  moral  earnestness  that  pervades 


60  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

the  atmosphere  of  the  present  time,  for  the 
preaching  statesmen  like  Bryan  and  Roose- 
velt, for  the  press  with  its  myriad  eyes  and 
mighty  power  usually  but,  alas  1  not  always  on 
the  right  side  of  moral  questions,  for  the  clubs 
and  leagues  and  reformers  who  are  constantly 
goading  him  and  society  to  diligence  in  doing 
good  the  preacher  can  devoutly  thank  God. 
Jesus  Himself  said,  "  He  that  is  not  against 
us  is  for  us."  In  most  moral  efforts  they  are 
usually  not  against  us  but  powerfully  reen- 
force  the  message  the  preacher  has  been 
delivering  through  the  centuries.  Thus  far 
they  are  allies  in  the  task  of  the  world's 
regeneration.  If  the  evils  of  the  present  time 
are  mighty  and  deeply  entrenched  in  the 
heart  of  society,  they  are  nevertheless  faced 
by  such  an  array  of  moral  and  religious  forces 
as  never  existed  before.  The  preacher  fights 
to-day  supported  by  an  army  of  allies  such 
as  his  predecessors  never  knew. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  minister  is 
not  of  the  world.  In  His  great  intercessory 
prayer  Jesus  says  of  the  men  to  whose 
special  devotion  He  was  committing  the  in- 
terests of  His  kingdom  for  the  future,  '*  They 
are  not  of  the  world  even  as  I  am  not  of  the 
world."  Neither  He  nor  they  rooted  life  in 
the  world,  or  lived  according  to  its  ideals. 


MINISTEE  IN  THE  MODEEN  WOELD    51 

It  was  preeminently  true  of  Jesus  that  He 
was  not  of  the  world,  and  yet  He  was  in  a 
very  real  sense  more  completely  of  the  world 
than  any  of  His  contemporaries.  He  lived 
at  the  very  heart  of  the  world's  striving  and 
suffering.  In  the  market-place,  in  the  temple 
and  the  synagogue,  in  the  home  of  the  Phar- 
isee and  the  publican,  with  the  rich  and  with 
the  poor,  among  the  doctors,  at  the  marriage 
and  the  feast,  in  the  sick-room  and  weeping 
beside  the  open  grave ;  surely  there  was  no 
point  of  life  which  He  did  not  touch.  He 
was  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  men  in  the 
midst  of  one  of  the  most  provincial  and 
narrowest  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  No 
ascetic  He.  His  love  of  men  and  sympathy 
with  them  made  it  possible  for  Him  to  speak 
a  vital  message  to  all  men.  A  Jew  Himself, 
His  message  has  been  the  regeneration  of  the 
Gentile  world.  His  was  the  vital  ideal  and 
this  gave  Him  a  universal  message. 

In  lesser  degree,  of  course,  but  in  the  same 
manner  the  apostles  were  not  of  the  world ; 
and  yet  He  sent  them  directly  into  the  world, 
to  live  and  work  at  its  heart.  They  were  to 
touch  all  that  was  human.  The  world's  life 
is  to  be  their  supreme  concern.  They  are  to 
neglect  no  race  nor  colour  nor  condition. 
The  idea  of  separation  from  the  world  has 


62  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

been  greatly  abused  in  the  course  of  the 
centuries  and  not  by  the  monks  alone.  Too 
often  the  minister  has  from  the  safety  of  his 
seclusion  looked  with  complaisance  or  dis- 
gust on  the  turbid  and  turbulent  stream  of 
the  world's  life,  and  in  either  hopelessness  or 
contempt,  has  bidden  it  flow  on  while  he 
attended  to  his  ecclesiastical  duties.  Not 
so  the  Master.  He  wept  over  the  self-right- 
eous, hardened  and  impenitent  city,  but  im- 
mediately descended  to  preach  in  its  streets 
and  its  temple  and  its  synagogues,  and  finally 
to  die  at  its  hands.  He  groaned  in  spirit 
over  the  bleeding  hearts  of  His  friends,  but 
immediately  proceeded  to  the  grave  and 
called  forth  the  motionless  and  silent  sleeper 
whose  death  was  the  cause  of  the  sorrow. 
His  neighbours  of  boyhood  days  sought  to 
cast  Him  headlong  down  a  precipice  to  His 
death,  but  He  passed  through  their  midst 
only  to  go  into  another  city  and  continue 
His  work.  He  had  compassion  on  the  mul- 
titudes scattered  abroad  as  sheep  having  no 
shepherd,  and  immediately  began  Himself 
to  be  their  shepherd. 

The  minister's  sphere  is  in  the  world's  life. 
He  has  been  placed  in  the  centre  of  things  ; 
he  is  "  the  middle  man,"  as  some  one  has 
aptly  phrased  it.     Men  of  other  callings  deal 


MINISTER  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD    63 

with  a  part  of  life,  he  with  the  whole.  If  he 
cannot  resist  and  overcome  its  temptations 
and  allurements  both  for  himself  and  others, 
he  should  lay  down  his  commission  as  a 
minister.  Free  from  the  fear  of  the  world's 
lure,  without  contempt  for  its  sin  and  folly, 
filled  with  compassion  for  its  ignorance  and 
suffering,  with  profound  sympathy  for  all  its 
noble  strivings,  he  should  walk  in  its  midst 
not  as  a  man  apart  but  with  the  life  of  God 
in  himself  and  the  life-giving  truth  of  God  on 
his  lips.  He  is  not  simply  preparing  men 
for  a  heaven  that  is  to  be,  but  is  labouring 
to  make  them  fit  to  live  in  the  world  of  God 
that  now  is.  Without  cynicism,  with  courage 
and  hopefulness  he  toils  on,  confident  that 
his  labours  cannot  be  in  vain  in  the  Lord 
even  though  the  fruit  is  not  immediately 
apparent.  He  knows  himself  to  be  the  min- 
ister of  life,  to  be  associated  with  God  in  the 
one  great  task  which  He  seems  to  have  set 
Himself  to  do.  Life  God  gave,  life  men  want. 
For  life  the  preacher  prays,  to  produce  life 
he  preaches  and  toils.  Such  is  the  preacher's 
task,  such  the  ideal  that  should  control  his 
life  and  work  in  this  modern  world. 


Ill 

THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH 

"^■^  THAT  is  truth?"  The  sneering 
\/\/  question  of  the  Roman  governor 
▼  ▼  may  be  asked  in  all  seriousness, 
and  it  will  be  answered  with  some  difficulty. 
A  distinction  is  sometimes  made  between 
fact  and  truth,  the  former  term  applying  to 
things  and  incidents,  the  latter  to  relations. 
No  such  distinction  is  necessary  to  the  pur- 
poses of  this  chapter.  By  truth  as  here  used 
is  meant  simply  a  statement  which  corre- 
sponds to  reality,  whatever  that  reality  may 
be.  With  this  definition  in  mind  let  us  see 
what  effect  the  vital  ideal  in  the  ministry 
will  have  on  the  minister's  relation  to  truth. 

There  are  men  whose  sole  object  in  life 
seems  to  be  the  pursuit  and  discovery  of  new 
and  hitherto  unknown  truth.  They  toil  as 
pioneers  and  discoverers  on  the  border-land 
of  the  known,  now  and  then  making  a  suc- 
cessful incursion  into  the  region  of  the  un- 
known. Their  business  is  to  discover,  ex- 
plore and  chart  the  newly  discovered  lands 
54 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH         56 

for  subsequent  travellers  and  settlers.  To 
men  who  devote  their  time  and  energies  to 
this  kind  of  work  we  owe  an  inestimable  debt 
of  gratitude.  They  have  laboured  in  the 
midst  of  obloquy  and  opposition,  without 
other  reward  than  the  consciousness  of  noble 
effort  to  discover  truth.  They  have  given  us 
most  of  our  knowledge  of  the  universe  in 
which  we  live  and  our  power  over  the  forces 
of  nature.  We  cannot  honour  them  too 
highly,  nor  can  we  render  those  who  are  now 
living  more  sympathy  and  aid  than  they  de- 
serve. 

But  the  labours  of  these  pioneer  discover- 
ers become  valuable  only  when  they  or  other 
men  apply  the  results  of  their  efforts  in  a 
practical  way  to  the  various  needs  of  men. 
The  interest  of  the  discoverer  is  in  the  truth, 
that  of  the  other  man  is  in  men  who  are  to  be 
served  by  the  truth. 

Now  the  preacher  belongs  to  the  latter 
class.  He  is  not  indifferent  to  the  discovery 
of  truth,  but  that  is  not  his  business.  His 
spiritual  and  intellectual  eyes  have  been  suf- 
ficiendy  opened  for  him  to  realize  something 
of  the  dimness  of  the  light  that  shines  about 
him.  He  remembered  that  Paul  even  with 
his  great  native  ability  and  learning,  his 
wonderful  religious  experience  and  the  illu- 


56  A  VITAL  MIOTSTRY 

mination  of  inspiration  was  yet  compelled  to 
write  that  "  we  know  in  part "  only,  and  now 
"  see  in  a  mirror,  darkly."  With  the  old  Puritan 
divine  he  believes  that  there  is  more  light  to 
break  from  God's  word,  and  not  only  from 
God's  word  but  also  from  God's  world.  He 
feels  sure  there  is  a  vast,  indeed  an  infinite, 
field  of  undiscovered  truth  lying  out  before 
us.  As  the  philosopher  long  ago  thought  of 
himself  as  a  boy  playing  on  the  seashore  and 
picking  up  a  particularly  beautiful  shell  now 
and  then  while  the  great  ocean  of  truth  rolled 
before  him  unexplored,  so  the  intelligent 
preacher  knows  that  there  is  a  vast  field  of 
truth  as  yet  unknown — in  fact  that  we  know 
almost  nothing  of  the  heart  and  essence  of 
things,  that  which  we  care  most  to  know. 

Moreover  he  fears  nothing  that  may  be 
dragged  out  of  that  dim  unknown,  for  he  rests 
in  the  confident  conviction  that  all  the  unex- 
plored regions  belong  to  his  God.  No  gen- 
uine discovery  is  to  be  feared,  therefore,  but 
welcomed  as  a  further  and  fuller  revelation  of 
the  character  and  methods  of  his  God.  It  is 
not  truth  that  he  fears,  but  error,  not  too  much 
discovery,  but  too  little.  He  rests  assured 
that  God  made  and  rules  over  both  the  known 
and  the  unknown  in  love  and  power,  and  gave 
us  the  spiritual  powers  with  which  to  trace  out 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  TEUTH         57 

and  follow  His  footsteps.  It  must,  therefore, 
be  not  only  allowable  and  appropriate,  but,  as 
he  thinks,  obligatory  on  him  and  infinitely 
pleasing  to  God  for  man  to  use  his  powers  in 
the  discovery  of  truth.  He  looks  about  him 
and  backward  over  the  centuries  and  notes 
the  inestimable  blessing  which  discoveries 
have  brought  to  mankind.  The  physical  uni- 
verse has  been  in  some  measure  conquered, 
unnecessary  and  unfounded  fears,  errors 
hoary  with  age  and  extremely  hurtful,  have 
been  exploded  and  have  vanished,  life  has 
been  beautified  and  elevated.  Judged  from 
every  standpoint,  it  seems  to  him,  investiga- 
tion is  to  be  commended  and  encouraged. 

This  is  the  ideal  attitude  which,  it  would 
seem,  ought  to  have  characterized  every  min- 
ister and  indeed  every  Christian  throughout 
the  centuries.  But  how  different  has  been  the 
actuality  I  Scarcely  anything  in  the  whole 
history  of  Christianity  is  more  discouraging 
and  disheartening  than  the  incredulity  and 
hostility  with  which  the  organized  Church 
has  usually  greeted  the  announcement  of  any 
great  discovery.  These  discoveries  have 
most  frequently  been  made  by  devout  Chris- 
tian men,  and  can,  therefore,  be  justly  claimed 
as  the  legitimate  fruit  of  the  Christian  life. 
In  order  to  estimate  Christianity  fairly  it  is 


5S  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  indi- 
vidual Christian  and  the  Christian  organiza- 
tion, the  Church.  As  in  other  great  corporate 
bodies,  the  Church  has  not  always  been  led 
by  its  best  men.  Christianity  has  better  suc- 
ceeded in  making  individuals  of  high  charac- 
ter than  in  creating  organizations  of  that 
type.  The  flower  and  richest  fruitage  of  our 
religion  is  seen  in  individual  lives  rather  than 
in  any  visible  corporate  body.  It  should  not, 
therefore,  surprise  us  to  find  an  individual 
Christian  sometimes  suffering  at  the  hands  of 
the  Christian  Church. 

But  whatever  zeal  for  investigation  and 
hospitality  to  new  truth  we  may  find  in  the 
individual  Christian  the  Church  has  never 
been  a  discoverer,  has  rarely  if  ever  encour- 
aged investigation,  and  has  often  persecuted 
the  man  who  dared  with  impious  feet  to  step 
outside  the  beaten  path  of  long  recognized 
and  accepted  truth.  In  this  attitude  of  hos- 
tility the  controlling  factor  has  been  the 
clergy.  They  have  almost  uniformly  looked 
with  fear  and  suspicion  on  newly  announced 
discoveries,  and  in  a  solid  phalanx  fought  the 
discoverer.  This  was  especially  true  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  the  Roman  Church,  but 
other  bodies  have  not  escaped  this  obsession. 

And  yet  it  would  seem  as  if  no  other  man 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH  59 

would  have  so  much  reason  to  welcome  new 
truth,  so  much  desire  to  escape  from  old 
error  as  the  minister.  He  above  all  other 
men,  it  would  seem,  would  have  confidence 
in  truth,  its  value  to  men  in  its  power  to 
bless.  With  a  proper  and  adequate  faith  in 
God  he  must  also  believe  that  all  truth  is  of 
God,  is  necessarily  consistent  with  all  other 
truth,  is  a  further  revelation  of  God  and  of 
value  to  the  welfare  of  man,  temporally  and 
eternally.  He  above  others  ought  to  have 
seen  the  hurtfulness  of  error,  and  the  su- 
preme value  of  facts.  He  more  than  others 
ought  to  realize  that  facts  are  the  realities 
which  come  from  God,  while  the  theories  and 
explanations,  the  systems,  are  faltering  fabri- 
cations of  men,  constantly  liable  to  change 
and  decay.  He  should  know  that  a  system 
is  helpless  before  a  fact,  that  one  fact  incon- 
sistent with  a  theory  is  sufficient  to  effect  its 
modification  or  even  its  complete  dissolution. 
Such  has  not  been  the  case.  They  have  not 
been  able  to  realize  that  there  remained  yet 
undiscovered  truth  lying  outside  their  sys- 
tems. 

Whatever  may  have  been  true  of  the  clergy 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages 
such  an  attitude  is  certainly  most  unworthy 
of  a  Protestant  minister  in  the  twentieth  cen- 


60  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

tury.  He  at  least  should  have  reached  a 
point  where  he  does  not  fear  the  light.  He 
must  have  faith  in  truth,  must  not  fear  truth, 
must  welcome  new  truth.  To  use  an  expres- 
sion of  the  Master  Himself,  when  He  had 
just  uttered  a  mass  of  truth  that  was  to  His 
hearers  both  new  and  frightfully  radical, 
he  must  be  "like  unto  a  man  that  is  a 
householder,  who  bringeth  forth  out  of  his 
treasure  things  new  and  old  "  (Matt.  xiii.  52). 
Without  fear,  with  perfect  calmness  and  in- 
tense interest  and  sympathy  the  minister 
should  be  able  to  sit  before  the  refiner's  fire, 
watch  the  test  tube,  peer  through  the  tele- 
scope and  the  microscope,  attend,  welcome, 
encourage  all  the  experiments  and  efforts  of 
the  scientist.  Why  should  he  fear?  He  is 
convinced  that 

*'  In  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadows 
Keeping  watch  above  His  own." 

This  confidence  will  give  him  calmness  and 
poise  in  the  presence  of  opposing  views  and 
hostile  criticism.  Like  all  other  thoughtful 
men  he  has  a  world-view,  that  is,  a  set  of  as- 
sumptions from  which  he  starts  in  all  reason- 
ing. They  are  not  the  result  of  a  rational 
process  but  rather  the  presuppositions  of  all 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH  61 

reasoning.  He  knows  they  are  assumptions 
incapable  of  absolute  proof ;  but  he  knows 
also  that  other  world-views  rest  on  assump- 
tions equally  incapable  of  proof  and  equally 
necessary  to  the  conclusions  reached  by  their 
advocates.  His  inner  religious  experience, 
his  knowledge  of  the  world,  his  study  of  the 
course  of  history,  all  seem  to  him  to  agree 
with  and  confirm  the  Christian  view  of  God 
and  the  world,  and  he  is  confident  that  noth- 
ing will  overthrow  or  even  seriously  affect 
the  integrity  of  this  view.  He  knows  too 
much  of  the  diversities  of  men  to  expect  all 
men  to  accept  his  view,  but  that  considera- 
tion in  no  wise  alarms  or  disconcerts  him. 
Secure  in  the  conviction  that  his  own  view  is 
fundamentally  correct  and  that  profounder 
study  and  investigation  will  only  lead  men 
more  and  more  to  accept  it,  he  demands  for 
every  man  freedom  of  thought,  the  right  of 
unhampered  investigation.  That  does  not 
mean  that  men  of  widely  divergent  and  dis- 
cordant views  should  remain  in  the  same 
ecclesiastical  organization,  for  a  certain  de- 
gree of  harmony  is  necessary  to  effective 
Christian  activity.  Nor  does  it  mean  that 
variant  views  shall  be  immune  from  criticism 
and  effort  at  refutation.  It  only  means  that 
every  man  shall  have  the  right  in  society  and 


62  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

the  state  to  think  for  himself  and  to  express 
his  honest  thoughts,  that  they  shall  not  be 
suppressed  by  force  but  refuted  by  argument, 
and  this  it  does  mean  with  emphasis.  This 
position  he  takes  not  only  because  of  the 
fundamental  rights  of  man,  but  also  because 
he  hopes  for  further  discoveries  by  these  fear- 
less independent  thinkers.  He  remembers 
how  discoverers  in  the  past  have  been 
execrated  during  their  lives  and  almost  can- 
onized after  death.  He  has  no  desire  to  play 
any  part  in  the  repetition  of  this  sorrowful 
drama.  He  does  not  believe  that  all  truth 
is  known,  and  feels  confident  that  every  truth, 
new  and  old,  has  some  power  to  bless  and 
elevate  man. 

The  wise  and  confident  modern  minister, 
then,  encourages  investigation  and  welcomes 
new  truth.  But  he  is  not  primarily  an  inves- 
tigator. His  mission  in  the  world  is  not  to 
discover  but  to  use  truth,  that  is  to  apply  it 
to  the  business  of  producing  life.  Indeed, 
strange  as  it  may  at  first  sound,  his  interest 
is  not  primarily  in  truth  at  all,  but  only  in 
truth  as  the  minister  to  life.  His  mission  is 
neither  the  discovery  of  truth  nor  the  defense 
of  truth,  not  even  the  propagation  of  truth 
for  its  own  sake.  He  may  as  a  minister 
do    all    these    in    fact    and   with   propriety, 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH  63 

and  the  last  two  functions  he  must  per- 
form. All  this  he  does,  however,  not  for 
truth's  sake,  but  in  the  interest  of  the  main 
matter  which  is  the  production  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  life  of  men.  He  must  never  for 
one  moment  forget  that  he  has  been  sent 
forth  by  his  Lord  to  give  life  to  men. 

The  fatal  mistake  of  supposing  that  the 
main  business  of  Christianity  was  to  formulate, 
preserve  and  defend  the  truth  has  not  in- 
frequently been  made  ;  but  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  the  paramount  interest  of  Jesus 
and  His  immediate  disciples  was  in  the  life  of 
men,  not  in  any  body  of  truth.  He  was  the 
way  and  the  truth,  but  only  that  He  might 
culminate  in  the  life.  Not  until  He  reached 
the  life  was  His  work  complete.  He  judged 
men  by  their  attitude  to  His  Father  and 
towards  their  fellow  men,  not  by  any  body  of 
truth  they  might  be  holding,  except  in  so  far 
as  it  might  affect  this  filial  attitude.  To 
love  God  with  one's  whole  being  and  the 
neighbour  as  one's  self,  that  was  to  fulfill  the 
whole  law  and  the  prophets.  Such  was  His 
thought. 

But  His  free  and  vital  attitude  did  not  long 
survive  in  the  infant  Church.  Christianity 
quickly  passed  into  the  custody  of  the  Greeks. 
Their     interest    was    in    truth,    speculative 


64  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

thought  or  philosophy,  far  more  than  in  life 
or  the  welfare  of  the  people.  Ethics  and 
religion,  except  as  an  esthetic  stimulus,  had 
little  value  for  the  Greek.  He  was  usually 
immoral  himself  even  when  profoundly 
learned.  It  was  doubtless  natural  that  he 
should  have  speedily  fastened  his  own  in- 
tellectual attitude  on  the  infant  Church. 
Gradually  a  man's  intellectual  beliefs  came  to 
be  the  standard  by  which  he  was  judged. 
Theology  established  itself  as  the  supreme, 
and  in  fact  as  almost  the  sole,  criterion  of  the 
Christian  life.  A  man  must  be  orthodox  or 
suffer  the  extreme  penalties  of  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  displeasure.  The  kind  of  life  he  was 
living  was  a  matter  of  secondary  importance ; 
he  was  tried  by  the  truth  he  professed.  As 
we  have  seen  this  was  the  reversal  of  the  at- 
titude of  Jesus  and  the  early  churches,  and  its 
evil  effects  soon  made  themselves  manifest. 
Persecution  stalked  on  to  the  stage,  sectarian- 
ism and  bitterness  rent  the  Church,  moral 
standards  rapidly  sank  and  Christian  life  be- 
came little  better  than  that  of  the  heathen. 

The  truth  was  formulated  into  creeds  as  a 
sacred  deposit,  infallible,  unchangeable,  uni- 
versally valid  and  binding.  In  this  form  it 
was  regarded  as  final  and  absolute  truth,  to 
be  permanently  preserved  from  all  ^enemies 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH  66 

and  mercilessly  turned  against  all  foes. 
Subscribe  to  these  formulas  and  all  was  well ; 
depart  from  them  and  the  flames  of  earth  and 
of  an  eternal  hell  were  the  penalty.  Thus 
men  thought  and  acted  almost  universally 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  ;  and  this  is  still 
the  attitude  of  the  Roman  and  Greek  Catholic 
Churches.  In  fact  it  is  to  the  present  hour 
the  most  striking  characteristic  of  these  two 
great  Churches.  They  claim  above  all  else 
to  be  orthodox,  that  is,  correct  in  teaching. 
They  have  the  truths  securely  packed  in 
creeds  and  labelled,  easily  found  and  always 
ready  for  deadly  use  against  men,  against 
life.  No  other  Christian  body  has  laid  so 
much  emphasis  upon  truth,  no  other  has 
made  such  failure  in  the  production  of  life. 
Their  great  mistake  has  been  that  they  placed 
truth  in  the  room  of  life  as  the  object  of 
thought  and  endeavour,  with  the  woeful  result 
that  they  have  largely  made  failure  of  both 
truth  and  life.  In  no  other  bodies  are  there 
such  ruinous  masses  of  superstitious  and 
hurtful  error,  and  in  no  other  is  the  standard 
of  Christian  living  so  low.  This  condition  is 
no  accident,  but  is  the  direct  and  immediate 
and  inevitable  result  of  the  mistake  of  putting 
truth  in  the  supreme  place  given  by  Jesus  to 
life. 


66  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

The  true  minister  will,  therefore,  shun  this 
great  and  specious  danger  as  he  would  the 
blight.  On  the  other  hand  he  will  not  make 
the  equally  serious  mistake  of  being  indiffer- 
ent to  truth,  of  believing  that  one  opinion  is 
as  good  as  another.  He  knows  that  no 
error  can  be  as  valuable  for  life  as  the  truth. 
Truth  is  the  food  of  the  soul,  and  as  such  is 
of  supreme  importance  to  every  man  who 
would  nobly  serve  the  life.  As  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  minister  to  serve  the  life  he  must 
know  and  know  how  to  use  the  truth.  Just 
as  the  world  to-day  has  the  most  intense  and 
practical  interest  in  the  purity,  value  and  ef- 
fects of  the  various  kinds  of  foods  in  the 
building  and  sustaining  of  the  body,  so  the 
preacher  cannot  fail  to  be  interested  in  the 
food  of  the  soul.  Sanitation,  nourishment 
and  exercise  are  as  necessary  to  spiritual 
health,  growth  and  strength  as  to  the  welfare 
of  the  body.  Providing  these  conditions  of 
vigorous  growth  is  the  minister's  work,  and 
he  cannot,  therefore,  be  indifferent  to  the 
soul's  food,  if  he  be  a  worthy  man.  He  will 
seek  the  truth,  winnow  out  the  error,  be  sat- 
isfied with  nothing  but  the  truth.  He  may 
be  responsible  to  some  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation for  the  presentation  of  a  certain  type 
of  theology  and  ecclesiastical  opinion,  but  he 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  TEUTH  67 

is  responsible  to  God  and  the  souls  of  men 
for  the  presentation  of  the  truth  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  the  pure,  unadulterated  food  of 
the  soul.  It  is  a  solemn  responsibility  which 
cannot  be  lightly  assumed  by  any  man  who 
seriously  considers  his  duty.  Reflection  on 
these  facts  should  make  the  minister  a  most 
diligent  truth-seeker — a  seeker  after  the  truth 
in  order  that  he  may  be  a  minister  of  the 
truth  to  the  life. 

The  preacher's  interest  in  truth  is  prag- 
matic ;  he  cherishes  it  for  its  value  to  life. 
This  leads  him  to  make  sharp  distinctions 
among  truths,  so  as  to  be  able  to  put  them 
to  use  according  to  their  respective  values. 
He  has  been  called  of  God  and  men  mainly 
to  cherish  the  moral  and  religious  elements 
of  man's  nature.  Society  has  provided  the 
school  to  care  for  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  race,  and  the  means  of  ministra- 
tion to  the  physical  man  are  numberless. 
There  is  comparatively  little  that  the  preacher 
needs  to  do  or  can  do  here,  other  than  gen- 
erate an  atmosphere  of  divine  and  human 
love  that  will  demand  justice  and  kindness  in 
all  social  and  economic  relations.  He  can- 
not of  course  be  indifferent  to  men's  physical 
welfare.  That  is  a  part  of  the  specific  prob- 
lem to  whose  constant  solution  he  has  been 


68  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

called.  But  he  must  reach  and  contribute 
his  share  to  that  solution  in  the  way  which  is 
appropriate  to  his  own  place  and  calling,  that 
is  through  the  infusion  of  life  and  vigour  into 
the  spiritual  nature.  He  is  working  towards 
an  ideal,  not  on  a  program.  It  is  granted  to 
him  to  contribute  powerfully  to  the  making 
of  men  with  right  purposes  and  the  ability  to 
carry  them  into  effect ;  statesmen  and  econ- 
omists must  carry  through  the  program. 
This  practical  work  is  in  modern  times  done 
mainly  through  the  state  and  municipality. 
The  modern  preacher  is  thus  left  free  from 
principal  responsibility  for  the  training  of  the 
mind  and  the  care  of  the  body,  except  as  he 
creates  an  atmosphere  friendly  to  these  tasks. 
But  he  is  charged  with  almost  exclusive  re- 
sponsibility for  the  care  of  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious nature  of  men.  This  is  due  to  the 
exclusion  of  moral  and  religious  instruction 
from  the  state  schools  in  America,  to  the 
growing  disposition  to  neglect  this  instruc- 
tion in  the  home.  The  church  and  the  Sun- 
day-school, led  by  the  preacher,  are  thereby 
assuming  an  importance  in  the  religious  life 
of  Americans  that  they  perhaps  never  had 
before. 

In  meeting   this   grave  responsibility  the 
minister  will  choose  those  truths  for  presenta- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH  69 

tion  which  best  serve  the  purposes  and  ends 
of  his  calling.  It  is  his  duty  and  privilege  to 
bring  men  to  know  God  and  feed  their  lives 
from  this  eternal  source  of  all  life.  He  will 
avoid  the  trivial,  the  unimportant,  the 
ephemeral,  however  true  they  may  be,  and 
drive  straight  at  the  heart  of  the  eternally 
important.  The  affairs  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  the  life  eternal  are  of  such  transcend- 
ent importance  and  the  opportunities  for 
addressing  men  on  these  themes  are  so  in- 
frequent and  brief  that  no  time  should  be 
lost  on  the  unimportant.  Judged  from  this 
standpoint,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  the  correct 
one,  how  much  irrelevant  matter  is  some- 
times presented  in  the  modern  pulpit  I  What 
value,  for  example,  have  curious  questions  of 
literary  criticism  for  the  temporal  or  eternal 
welfare  of  the  average  man  ?  The  question 
as  to  whether  there  are  one  or  two  Isaiahs 
has  about  as  much  bearing  on  his  life  as  the 
discussion  of  the  chemical  composition  of  the 
planet  Mars.  So  with  most  of  the  other 
critical  opinions  which  some  dapper  young 
theologues  and  a  few  older  preachers  whose 
age  has  not  increased  their  wisdom,  feel  com- 
pelled to  air  on  occasion.  Brilliant  and 
startling  attacks  on  long  and  widely  cherished 
views   may    call   forth   a  momentary  news- 


70  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

paper  notoriety  and  even  provoke  a  heresy 
trial,  but  will  never  save  a  soul  or  build  up 
the  life  of  a  man.  If  ministers  kept  con- 
stantly before  them  the  supreme  object  of 
their  high  calling,  the  production  of  life,  and 
really  cared  for  this  unique  privilege,  we 
should  be  spared  such  dazzling  spectacles. 
Negations  sometimes  clear  the  ground  for  the 
building  of  life,  but  they  make  no  direct  con- 
tribution thereto.  Nature  hates  an  intellec- 
tual or  spiritual  vacuum  as  much  as  a  physical 
one,  and  usually  destroys  it  or  penalizes  its 
presence  in  the  same  way  as  in  material 
nature. 

Equally  futile  and  barren  is  the  defense  or 
advocacy  of  views  that  have  no  vital  signifi- 
cance to  either  preacher  or  hearers,  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  old  and  orthodox. 
They  may  even  be  true  and  may  have  filled 
an  important  place  in  the  life  of  men  in  the 
past  when  conditions  were  different  ;  but  if 
conditions  have  so  changed  as  to  render 
them  relatively  useless  for  the  life  of  men  to- 
day the  wise  preacher  will  omit  them.  He  is 
to  build  the  life  and  must  choose  his  message 
to  that  end.  It  is  not  established  views  of 
Scripture  or  subscription  to  creeds  that  give 
life  to  the  soul,  but  knowledge  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus,  brought  home  to  the  hearts  of 


THE  MINISTER  AND  TRUTH         71 

men  by  the  passionate  earnestness  of  a 
preacher  fired  by  a  heart  conviction.  Such 
truth  gives  life.  Official  ecclesiastical  ortho- 
doxy may  be  just  as  barren  of  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit  and  the  graces  of  the  Christian  life 
as  the  most  radical  liberalism.  To  see  that 
this  is  historically  true  one  needs  only  to  turn 
his  eyes  to  the  Orthodox  Church  of  the  East, 
or  to  those  periods  in  the  history  of  any  of 
the  modern  churches  when  most  emphasis 
was  laid  on  orthodoxy.  They  are  never  the 
periods  of  greatest  harmony,  holiness  and 
activity.  The  periods  of  vital  preaching  are 
the  periods  of  Christian  power. 

Thoughts  of  other  things  are  constantly 
thrust  on  men  by  the  exigencies  of  their  daily 
lives,  while  there  is  little  to  recall  them  to 
God.  They  have  little  time  to  learn  to  know 
God  and  themselves,  sin  and  the  Saviour, 
this  world  with  its  duties  and  the  eternity  that 
lies  beyond.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that 
most  men  have  all  too  little  inclination  to  re- 
flect on  these  things.  These  are,  therefore, 
the  thoughts,  meditations  and  aspirations 
that  ought  to  speak  especially  from  the  pul- 
pit. Silence  would  be  better  than  the  barren, 
blatant,  negative  criticism,  or  the  dry,  dreary, 
droning  polemics  that  are  sometimes  heard 
there.     If  the  preacher  would  only  remember 


72  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

that  his  mission  is  to  life  such  subjects  would 
not  be  treated  in  the  pulpit.  They  have 
their  place  no  doubt.  Let  the  preacher  do 
his  share  in  the  world's  intellectual  battles, 
for  such  battles  must  be  fought.  But  in  the 
pulpit  we  want  food,  not  powder  and  ball,  no 
matter  which  direction  the  gun  may  be 
pointed.  In  the  pulpit  let  us  seek  to  build  up 
life,  not  to  kill  and  destroy,  and  let  us  select 
our  truths  accordingly.  Not  truth  for  truth's 
sake,  but  truth  for  life's  sake  ;  not  all  truth, 
but  relevant  truth  ;  not  official  truth,  but  vital 
truth,  truth  of  highest  worth  to  the  life  of 
men — this  is  the  truth  which  the  minister 
who  is  furnished  to  every  good  word  and 
work  will  discover  and  present. 


IV 

THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY 

WE  live  in  an  age  when  Christian 
thought  is  in  a  state  of  solution 
more  complete  than  at  any  time 
since  its  crystallization  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries.  Dogma  in  the  old  sense  of  the 
final  authoritative  statement  of  religious  truth 
has  almost  disappeared  from  the  Christian 
world  outside  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
whole  of  Christian  thought  is  again  in  the 
crucible.  The  Protestant  churches  are  radi- 
cally changing  creeds  that  have  stood  the 
strain  of  centuries,  and  some  bodies,  as  for 
example  the  Baptists,  repudiate  all  statements 
of  doctrine  except  as  confessions  of  their  faith 
to  be  used  for  purposes  of  information  and 
instruction.  Even  the  systematic  presenta- 
tion of  religious  beliefs  in  the  form  of  sys- 
tematic theology  has  fallen  into  confusion 
and  even  into  disfavour  in  some  quarters. 
The  old  statements  no  longer  satisfy  multi- 
tudes of  people,  but  as  yet  no  satisfactory 
new  forms  have  been  found  to  supply  the  de- 
73 


74  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

fects  of  the  old.  Theology  seems  to  be  try 
ing  to  get  on  a  new  basis,  to  approach  its 
theme  from  a  new  direction  and  to  justify  it- 
self by  a  new  method.  But  as  yet  it  has  not 
attained.  It  is  hesitating,  uncertain,  con- 
fused. The  old  is  going  and  the  new  is 
coming,  but  neither  process  is  sufificiendy 
advanced  to  be  able  to  forecast  the  result. 
One  theologian  goes  in  one  direction  and 
another  in  another  ;  there  is  no  concerted  or 
harmonious  movement  in  any  direction. 
This  confusion  and  hesitation  come  just  at  a 
time  when  science,  history  and  other  fields  of 
thought  are  showing  most  progress,  activity 
and  assurance. 

I.  When  we  inquire  concerning  the  causes 
of  this  strange  phenomenon  several  possible 
partial  explanations  suggest  themselves.  In 
the  first  place  theology  was  the  first  of  the 
sciences  to  be  developed.  Men  were  inter- 
ested in  and  reflecting  on  God  and  man  and 
their  relations  to  each  other  long  before  they 
took  up  the  other  questions  with  which 
modern  man  is  so  largely  engaged.  Specu- 
ladve  theology  will  scarcely  ever  go  beyond 
the  great  systems  of  the  past.  In  an  age 
largely  given  to  philosophic  thought  this 
theology,  so  widely  and  minutely  developed 
in  all  directions,  was  thoroughly  satisfying. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      75 

Theology  was  known  as  "  the  queen  of  the 
sciences"  long  before  the  so-called  natural 
sciences  had  begun  their  triumphant  career. 
It  was  justly  entitled  to  this  preeminence,  for 
more  thought  and  effort  had  been  expended 
upon  it  than  upon  all  other  fields  of  thought 
combined.  Men  lived  and  moved  in  an  at- 
mosphere surcharged  with  theological  specu- 
lation. With  the  outbreak  of  the  Renais- 
sance this  began  to  be  changed.  Interest  in 
other  matters  began  to  dispute  the  supremacy 
of  theology.  Slowly  but  surely  and  irresist- 
ibly history,  a  non-theological  philosophy 
and  the  sciences  claimed  a  larger  and  larger 
share  of  the  thought  and  attention  of  man- 
kind. Theology,  which  had  so  long  been 
supreme,  could  brook  such  upstart  rivals  with 
no  good  grace.  It  was  thrown  on  the  de- 
fensive, became  suspicious,  combative  and 
oppressive.  Unable  to  keep  its  leadership 
by  intellectual  superiority  it  resorted  to 
forcible  repression.  As  a  consequence  it  be- 
came static,  stagnant  and  reactionary.  The 
rest  of  the  world  swept  gloriously  onward 
while  it  stood  by  the  wayside  glowering  at 
the  progress  it  could  not  prevent,  still 
vehemently  asserting  its  claim  to  finality 
and  supreme  authority  over  other  realms  of 
thought.     This  claim  the  rest  of  the  world 


76  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

could  at  length  afford  to  spurn.  This  it  did, 
and  toiled  on  with  its  own  fascinating  task, 
leaving  theology  to  point  proudly  backward 
to  its  own  great  attainments  in  the  past. 
The  very  glories  of  that  past  throttled  the 
possibility  of  progress,  and  thus  became  the 
occasion  of  its  own  downfall.  Too  proud  to 
recognize  rivals  or  acknowledge  the  possi- 
bility of  further  development  two  centuries 
and  more  were  required  for  it  to  learn  that 
humility  which  was  necessary  to  its  revival 
and  rehabilitation.  That  time  has  at  length 
come.  It  now  modestly  admits  that  it  is 
neither  final  nor  infallible,  and  has  as  a  con- 
sequence begun  a  reconstruction  in  the  light 
of  all  that  the  world  now  knows. 

The  Teuton  and  Anglo-Saxon  of  the  nine- 
teenth and  twentieth  centuries  have  begun  to 
claim  that  they  have  reached  their  theological 
majority  and  are  capable  of  writing  their 
own  theology.  They  no  longer  feel  com- 
pelled to  accept  as  final  the  work  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  theologians  of  the  Catholic 
Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  earlier 
centuries.  They  frankly  recognize  the  great- 
ness and  importance  of  the  work  done  by 
those  fathers,  but  they  assert  their  own  right 
and  even  their  duty  to  question  both  its  form 
and  contents.     The  ancient  world  made  mis- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      77 

takes  in  other  matters,  they  say,  why  not  in 
theology  ?  They  were  Catholics,  we  are 
Protestants  ;  their  knowledge  of  the  world 
was  far  more  limited  and  imperfect  than 
ours  ;  their  methods  of  study  were  inferior  to 
ours  ;  the  religious  life  and  experience  about 
them,  forming  the  spiritual  atmosphere  in 
which  they  worked,  was  much  less  vital  than 
ours.  All  this,  it  is  claimed,  gives  the 
modern  theologian  the  right  and  in  fact  lays 
upon  him  the  obligation  to  think  the  whole 
field  of  theology  through  afresh  as  every 
other  field  of  thought  has  been  reinvestigated 
in  modern  times.  Otherwise,  it  is  felt, 
theology  will  lose  all  hold  on  the  thinking 
men  of  the  present  and  be  thrown  on  the 
scrap-heap  as  a  system  of  thought  at  length 
outworn  and  useless.  It  is  admitted  that  it 
would  doubtless  be  cherished  a  while  longer 
by  the  uncultured  and  backward ;  but  ulti- 
mately they  would  give  it  up,  for  that  which 
thinking  people  have  finally  discarded  will 
infallibly  lose  its  significance  for  all.  The- 
ology must,  therefore,  it  is  claimed,  be  re- 
worked or  lose  all  influence  on  modern  life. 

Now  whether  one  agrees  with  these  asser- 
tions or  not  he  must  recognize  the  fact  that 
they  constitute  a  powerful  plea,  and  further 
that  they  are  actually  leading  men  to  do  the 


78  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

work  for  which  they  claim  the  right.  They 
are  actually  at  work  afresh  on  theology,  not 
simply  restating  the  old  Catholic  doctrines  in 
modern  language,  but  also  inquiring  with  all 
possible  diligence,  in  the  light  of  all  we  know 
and  all  we  think  we  know  to-day,  whether 
the  ancients  did  not  fail  to  apprehend  the 
whole  truth  or  did  actually  make  theological 
mistakes. 

2.  Another  fact  in  the  history  of  theology 
has  doubtless  contributed  to  this  desire  for 
change.  The  mind  of  the  ancient  world,  in 
so  far  as  it  was  cultured,  was  formed  chiefly 
by  the  study  of  literature,  philosophy  and 
law  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  by  the  last  two. 
The  studies  that  are  chiefly  instrumental  in 
moulding  the  modern  mind  were  as  yet 
largely  non-existent.  And  it  is  an  indispu- 
table fact  that  all  the  great  theologians  down 
to  and  including  the  period  of  the  Reforma- 
tion were  trained  in  the  law.  The  Roman 
Empire  within  whose  borders  and  under 
whose  influence  most  of  our  theology  was 
formulated  was  the  great  developer  and  cus- 
todian of  law  in  the  ancient  world.  During 
the  Middle  Ages  canon  law  was  a  very  im- 
portant study  for  all  theologians.  Under  these 
influences  and  with  this  culture  it  is  not 
strange  that  theology  was  formulated  almost 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      79 

exclusively  in  legal  terms  and  forensic  concep- 
tions. The  relation  between  God  and  man 
was  conceived  as  a  legal  one.  Paul  had  been 
trained  in  the  Jewish  law  and  constantly  used 
legal  terms  in  expressing  his  conception  of 
the  relations  of  God  and  men.  Some  of  these 
terms  which  at  once  occur  to  the  mind  are 
law,  election,  justification,  redeem,  redeemer, 
redemption,  ransom,  adoption,  heir,  inherit- 
ance and  others.  The  great  Latin  theolo- 
gians of  the  earlier  centuries  such  as  Tertul- 
lian,  Cyprian,  Ambrose  and  Augustine  were 
all  able  and  learned  lawyers.  They  all  con- 
ceived religious  truths  in  a  legal  way  and 
expressed  them  in  legal  terms.  Moreover 
their  statements  became  normative  for  later 
ages.  The  Latin  language  became  the 
sacred  language  of  worship  and  all  ecclesias- 
tical learning.  Latin  law  terms  fixed  theol- 
ogy for  centuries.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
Anselm,  Aquinas,  Duns  Scotus  and  all  the 
other  creative  minds  both  used  the  Latin  lan- 
guage and  were  deeply  versed  in  canon  law. 
Strangely  enough  when  we  come  to  the  Ref- 
ormation the  same  is  found  to  be  true.  The 
two  great  creative  minds  were  Luther  and 
Calvin  and  both  were  deeply  versed  in  law, 
in  fact  had  intended  to  follow  the  law  as  a 
profession.     Very  many^  of  the  men  of  lesser 


80  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

calibre  and  significance  were  likewise  lawyers. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  would  have  re- 
quired a  constant  miracle  to  have  prevented 
theology  from  being  expressed  in  legal  con- 
ceptions and  terms.  It  was  just  what  was 
needed  at  that  time,  fitting  the  social  condi- 
tions as  well  as  the  current  culture.  Theol- 
ogy could  not  have  been  so  vital  to  the 
people  if  expressed  in  any  other  terms  or 
conceptions. 

It  is  far  otherwise  now.  Law  has  little  im- 
portance as  an  instrument  of  culture.  Its 
purpose  is  purely  practical,  and  the  lawyers 
form  a  small  class  of  society.  There  is  noth- 
ing among  Protestants  in  any  measure  cor- 
responding to  the  canon  law  in  which  the 
theologians  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  to  be 
carefully  trained.  In  fact  the  great  majority 
of  the  theologians  of  the  last  century  and  a 
half  have  never  studied  law  in  any  form.  A 
new  culture  has  arisen  and  by  that  the  mind 
of  the  modern  theologian  has  been  moulded. 
Mathematics,  the  classics,  history  and  the 
sciences  have  fixed  the  nomenclature  and  de- 
termined the  forms  of  his  thought.  He  has 
been  taught  to  be  suspicious  of  speculation, 
to  doubt  what  he  cannot  test.  Of  law  he  has 
little  knowledge  and  for  it  cherishes  no  great 
respect.     He  has  as  little  dealings  with  it  as 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      81 

possible.  It  is  mechanical  and  remote  from 
his  life,  frequently  a  positive  hindrance  to  so- 
cial progress  and  remedial  legislation.  Gov- 
ernmental relations  and  work  are  not  suffi- 
ciently personal  and  vital  to  serve  him  as 
molds  and  imagery  for  his  religious  convic- 
tions, feelings  and  aspirations. 

Religion  itself  has  been  greatly  spiritualized 
and  deepened  since  the  work  of  the  medieval 
Catholic  and  the  Reformation  theologians 
was  done.  Social  conditions  have  so  changed 
that  many  of  the  terms  in  use  formerly  are 
no  longer  applicable.  The  modern  man 
thinks  in  terms  of  biology,  life,  science  and 
social  relations.  He  conceives  his  relations 
to  God  and  his  fellow  men  in  a  much  more 
intimate  and  vital  way  than  the  ancients. 
They  employed  the  analogies  of  law  and  the 
state  to  express  the  relations  that  exist  be- 
tween God  and  men  ;  but  to  him  those  of 
life  and  the  family  seem  better  fitted  for  this 
purpose.  It  was,  therefore,  inevitable  that 
the  old  theology  with  its  philosophical  specu- 
lations, its  legal  terminology,  its  scholastic 
and  dialectic  definitions  and  divisions,  its  ex- 
ternalized conceptions,  should  seem  to  him 
a  priori^  external,  mechanical  and  remote 
from  life  and  experience.  He  wants  to  come 
into  more  intimate  relations  with  God  than 


82  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

legal  terms  and  conceptions  will  admit  him. 
He  wants  a  theology  expressed  in  such  terms 
as  he  can  understand — that  is,  terms  drawn 
from  life,  the  family  and  science. 

3.  Systematic  theology  has  always  been 
intimately  related  to  current  philosophy,  and 
has  reflected  more  or  less  completely  the 
changes  and  conditions  of  the  latter.  Now, 
since  Kant,  philosophy  has  been  in  consider- 
able confusion.  There  has  been  nothing  of 
the  unity  and  assurance  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Men  have  been  in  uncertainty  as  to  what 
could  be  known  and  how  the  knowable  could 
be  mastered.  They  have  felt  suspicious  of 
speculation  and  have  felt  themselves  com- 
pelled by  science  to  rely  upon  experience. 
The  philosophic  basis  and  method  of  the  old 
theology  have  fallen  into  disfavour.  Natur- 
ally theology  itself  has  felt  the  shock  of  these 
changes  in  its  old  ally.  It  too  has  fallen  into 
uncertainty  and  confusion. 

4.  Another  influence  which  has  undoubt- 
edly operated  largely  in  bringing  theology  to 
its  present  position  has  been  the  tremendous 
interest  in  historical  studies  during  the  last 
century.  The  history  of  theology  has  been 
investigated.  It  has  been  found  that  every 
doctrine  has  had  a  history,  a  growth,  or,  to 
use  a  scientific  term  for  a  very  familiar  ex- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      83 

perience,  an  evolution.  Men  have  not  always, 
everywhere,  believed  the  same  thing  or  any- 
where near  it.  Moreover  some  of  the  chap- 
ters in  this  history  have  not  been  of  a 
character  to  commend  the  conclusions  to  the 
confidence  of  men.  Both  the  historic  method 
and  the  historical  conclusions  have  modified 
the  conception  of  the  finality  and  authority 
of  dogma.  It  has  been  more  difficult  to  ac- 
cept the  dogma  when  one  knew  its  history. 

5.  The  scientific  method,  which  is  the 
special  mark  of  the  intellectual  life  and  train- 
ing of  modern  times,  is  also  exerting  a  very 
great  influence  on  theology.  The  old  method 
was  a  priori.  '^  Aristotle  was  king  in  Zion." 
Conclusions  were  reached  by  the  methods  of 
deductive  logic.  From  generals  men  de- 
scended to  particulars.  It  was  the  method 
of  philosophy  and  theology.  To-day  Bacon 
is  almost  king  in  Zion  in  so  far  as  method  is 
concerned.  Inductive  logic  insists  with  con- 
siderable success  that  it  is  the  only  legitimate 
method  in  philosophy  and  theology  as  well 
as  in  science.  Every  conclusion  must  be  at 
least  tested  by  experience  and  if  possible 
should  be  reached  and  built  up  by  the  in- 
ductive method.  This  insistence  has  put  a 
great  strain  on  both  philosophy  and  theology. 
So  powerful  is  science  that  the  demand  can- 


84  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

not  be  evaded  or  ignored,  and  yet  how  can 
it  be  applied  ?  That  has  been  the  embar- 
rassment of  theology  for  many  years.  Some 
theologians  frankly  say  that  there  can  be  no 
truly  scientific  theology,  and  the  scientist 
immediately  answers  with  emphasis  that,  if 
this  be  true,  then  there  can  be  no  theology 
at  all.  Theology  has  not  yet  transcended 
this  embarrassment  as  to  method  and  reached 
firm  ground  again.  Until  that  is  accom- 
plished there  will  certainly  continue  to  be 
hesitation  and  little  progress  in  theological 
reconstruction.  A  theological  method,  recog- 
nized as  legitimate,  is  the  need  of  the  hour. 

6.  Other  phases  of  our  modern  life  have 
contributed  to  the  present  chaotic  state  of 
theology.  The  intense  study  of  the  Bible 
and  its  ever  increasing  prominence  in  the 
religious  life  of  the  last  century  have  forced 
it  into  a  more  influential  position  in  the  pro- 
duction of  theology,  as  well  as  changed  the 
manner  of  its  use  in  that  science.  A  Biblical 
theology  has  arisen,  and  with  it  has  declined 
the  disposition  to  produce  a  systematic  the- 
ology whose  chasms  are  bridged  by  specu- 
lation. Men  have  been  more  inclined  to  stop 
where  the  Bible  stops  and  they  have  learned 
much  better  during  the  last  century  where 
the   Bible  does  stop.     Biblical  theology  has 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      85 

thus  in  some  measure  discredited  or  weak- 
ened systematic. 

7.  The  evangelical  character  of  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  nineteenth  century  has  elevated 
Christian  experience,  especially  that  of  the 
emotional  type,  to  a  position  it  never  held 
before.  Christian  experience  is  insisted  on 
not  only  as  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with  in 
the  construction  of  theology,  but  as  its  norm 
and  basis.  Not  only  must  theology  conform 
to  experience,  it  is  thought,  but  must  even 
grow  out  of  and  not  go  beyond  experience. 
The  scientific  method  of  inductive  study  has 
measurably  strengthened  this  tendency.  It 
is  not  sufficient  that  theology  should  satisfy 
the  intellect ;  it  is  required  that  it  should  con- 
form to  religious  experience  and  thus  become 
a  vital  force  in  the  life. 

8.  The  democratic  trend  of  modern  times 
has  emphasized  and  intensified  this  tendency. 
It  is  scarcely  possible  that  the  theology  of 
the  Middle  Ages  should  have  much  affected 
the  masses.  They  were  ignorant  and  con- 
sidered worthy  of  little  attention  either  by 
lord  or  theologian.  Theology  was  for  the 
school  and  the  class-room,  for  the  scholar, 
and  the  clergyman.  That  is  changed  now. 
The  common  man  has  come  to  his  majority 
and  must  be  heard.     He  is  interested  in  the- 


86  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

ology,  he  holds  the  strings  of  the  purse  whose 
contents  are  necessary  to  make  the  work  of 
the  kingdom  go  under  our  modern  voluntary 
system.  He  must  be  considered,  and  he 
demands  a  theology  that  reaches  his  own 
life  and  bosom.  Preachers  and  theologians 
have  been  compelled  to  listen,  and,  let  us 
believe,  have  been  glad  to  listen.  Theology 
has  thus  been  democratized  and  vitalized  in 
the  same  movement.  The  effort  is  now  on 
to  bring  it  into  intimate  and  vital  relations 
with  all  of  modern  life. 

9.  As  the  counterpart  to  this  tendency  to 
stress  experience,  the  modern  passion  for 
testable  facts  has  worked  towards  the  disin- 
tegration and  discredit  of  theology.  Much 
of  its  content  cannot  be  subjected  to  the  or- 
dinary tests  of  experience.  The  inevitable 
result  has  followed — an  agnostic  attitude 
towards  many  positions  that  were  asserted 
with  all  possible  confidence  a  few  centuries 
ago.  This  decline  of  dogmatic  certainty  does 
not  necessarily  mean  a  decline  of  faith,  but 
only  a  more  modest  estimate  of  the  triumphs 
of  the  intellect.  The  medieval  theologians 
were  gnostic  and  confident,  the  modern  are 
less  confident  and  perhaps  more  modest. 
They  are  not  so  sure  that  they  know  all  about 
the  nature  and  plans  of  the  Infinite  as  were 


THE  MINISTEB  AND  THEOLOGY      87 

their  predecessors.  As  the  knowledge  of  the 
immensity  and  complexity  of  the  universe 
and  the  inexplicable  doings  of  God  in  history 
has  broadened  and  deepened,  reverent  lips 
have  become  less  ready  to  speak.  Increase 
of  knowledge  has  increased  the  sense  of 
greatness  and  mystery  in  the  universe,  and 
laid  boasting  lips  in  the  dust.  The  assurance 
of  the  old  theology  concerning  the  attributes, 
purposes  and  work  of  God,  the  condition  of 
the  human  soul  and  much  more,  is  no  longer 
shared  by  modern  Christian  men.  The  old  as- 
sertions were  in  large  part  built  on  the  then  cur- 
rent philosophical  speculations  and  presuppo- 
sitions as  to  what  such  a  God  as  ours  must  be 
and  do.  These  statements  were  then  but- 
tressed by  Scripture  quotations  which  were 
often  misunderstood  or  misapplied.  The  con- 
clusions were  not  drawn  from  Scripture  but 
only  fortified  by  its  use.  The  modern  Chris- 
tian man  is  utterly  agnostic  about  much  of 
this.  He  knows  that  he  does  not  know  and 
he  does  not  believe  the  ancients  knew.  He 
is  not  disposed  to  speculate  himself  nor  to 
follow  the  speculations  of  others  very  far, 
even  though  those  speculations  are  hoary 
with  age  and  have  been  crystallized  into 
creeds  and  theological  systems.  He  is  much 
more  inclined  to  stop  with  facts  that  are  his- 


88  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

torically  and  scientifically  and  experientially 
testable.  These  facts  are  sufficiently  abun- 
dant to  satisfy  his  spiritual  needs  and  support 
his  Christian  hopes.  He  has  become  a  Chris- 
tian agnostic.  He  has  no  interest  in  going 
beyond  that  which  is  written  and  experienced. 
He  is  tremendously  interested  in  this  world 
and  its  uplift.  He  looks  about  him  and  sees 
that  the  simple  Gospel  has  power  to  save  and 
transform  men,  and  he  is  content  to  stop  there. 
ID.  A  further  phase  of  our  present  relig- 
ious life  must  not  be  forgotten.  The  modern 
missionary  movement  for  the  conversion  of 
the  non-Christian  world,  along  with  the  in- 
tensified endeavours  for  the  evangelizing  and 
social  uplift  of  the  masses  at  home,  have  ex- 
erted a  profound  influence  upon  theology. 
They  have  emphasized  the  love  of  God  for 
the  entire  race  and  His  efforts  for  their  salva- 
tion and  welfare.  The  old  theology  said  that 
the  justice  of  God  must  be  satisfied  ;  the  new 
affirms  that  His  love  must  be  satisfied.  How 
can  men  believe  in  election  in  the  old  sense 
when  they  have  come  to  believe  profoundly 
that  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  the  whole  race 
should  be  redeemed  ?  How  can  they  believe 
that  divine  justice  is  retributive  and  penal 
when  the  purpose  of  punishment  in  our  world 
is,    according  to  advanced   modern   views, 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  THEOLOGY      89 

chiefly  if  not  wholly  corrective  ?  Thus  men 
question  their  hearts.  The  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  were  filled  with  war, 
hardship  and  suffering.  Social  and  interna- 
tional injustice  made  men  stern  and  unsym- 
pathetic. They  were  compelled  to  fight  for 
life  and  all  that  life  holds  dear.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  strange  that  the  great 
theologians  of  this  period  gave  to  God's  jus- 
tice the  supreme  place  in  their  systems,  build- 
ing on  the  righteous  and  sovereign  if  not 
arbitrary  will  of  God.  The  idea  of  human 
rights  and  especially  the  dignity  and  rights 
of  the  individual,  was  almost  non-existent. 
All  government  was  a  despotism  in  which  the 
actions  of  the  ruler  were  limited  only  by  his 
power  and  self-interest.  The  individual  pos- 
sessed no  other  political,  social  nor  religious 
freedom  or  significance.  Society  was  on  a 
tooth  and  claw  basis.  Under  these  condi- 
tions it  was  inevitable  that  theology  should 
be  harsh,  stern  and  aristocratic.  God  loved 
men,  it  was  thought,  but  only  the  men  whom 
He  had  elected  to  salvation — an  election 
which  was  in  no  way  related  to  the  faith  or 
character  of  the  individual.  The  view  that 
Christ  died  for  none  but  the  elect  and  that  all 
the  rest  of  mankind  are  perfectly  helpless  and 
wholly  unable  to  escape  eternal  damnation  did 


90  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

not  shock  the  moral  sense  of  that  age.  It  was 
almost  universally  accepted  without  question 
or  protest.  A  change  in  social  conditions 
has  brought  about  a  similar  change  in  the- 
ology. The  modern  passion  for  humanity, 
for  the  welfare  of  all  men  irrespective  of  race 
or  condition,  has  now  made  such  a  theology 
well-nigh  impossible.  Men  have  been  unable 
to  give  themselves  in  love  and  service  to 
all  men  and  at  the  same  time  believe  that  God 
has  passed  by  a  large  part  of  the  race  without 
providing  any  way  of  salvation  ;  much  less 
can  they  believe  that  God  has  actively  blasted 
them  forever,  **  to  the  praise  of  His  glorious 
justice."  With  his  high  views  of  the  worth 
of  a  man  it  is  hard  for  the  modern  to  believe 
that  such  a  course  would  be  to  the  praise  of 
God's  justice.  Indeed,  to  be  perfectly  frank, 
he  does  not  believe  that  such  a  course  would 
be  either  just  or  loving.  That  conception  of 
God  has  not  been  able  to  survive  in  our  mod- 
ern atmosphere  of  service  and  has  in  fact  dis- 
appeared from  among  most  of  those  who  still 
call  themselves  Calvinists.  They  are  Calvin- 
ists  in  only  a  modified  sense.  As  yet  no  con- 
sistent system  has  come  to  take  the  place  of 
the  old,  and  present-day  theology  hangs  sus- 
pended between  heaven  and  earth,  unable  to 
ascend  or  descend  with  comfort. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      91 

These  and  other  considerations  have  had 
a  most  profound  influence  on  theology.  In 
the  olden  days  it  was  the  **  queen  of  the 
sciences."  The  great  universities  of  Europe 
and  the  denominational  colleges  in  America 
were  built  upon  it.  The  professorship  of 
theology  was  the  most  honoured  in  all  our 
seminaries.  Much  of  the  preacher's  duty  in 
the  pulpit  was  the  defense  and  propagation 
of  a  certain  system  of  theology.  The  pew, 
where  it  was  free  to  select,  chose  its  minister 
largely  for  his  ability  as  a  theologian.  The 
officials  sat  in  rapt  and  critical  attention 
while  the  minister  delivered  long  theological 
disquisitions  which  a  modern  congregation 
would  scarcely  tolerate.  All  this  is  now 
gone.  Does  the  change  mean  a  religious 
declension  ?  Undoubtedly  many  good  people 
think  so.  But  this  is  not  necessarily  the 
case.  It  signifies  a  shifting  of  emphasis, 
but  it  may  be,  and  in  the  judgment  of  many 
good  people  is,  a  gain  rather  than  the  con- 
trary. In  the  old  days  the  chief  religious 
interest  was  intellectual,  now  it  is  vital ;  then 
the  highest  concern  was  directed  to  the  way 
men  thought,  now  the  stress  is  on  the  way 
men  live ;  then  emphasis  was  laid  on  the- 
ology, now  it  is  on  spirituality,  ethics  and 
philanthropy.       Then   the    congregation   in- 


92  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

quired  if  the  minister  was  a  sound  and  able 
theologian,  now  it  investigates  his  ability  to 
build  up  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  the 
church  and  community. 

Now  in  view  of  and  in  the  midst  of  these 
changes,  already  great  and  still  in  progress, 
what  is  the  modern  minister  to  do?  What 
is  to  be  his  attitude  towards  theology  ?  Is  it 
to  have  any  place  in  his  training  and  work 
in  the  future  ?  Does  Christianity  need  a 
systematic  theology  or  have  we  passed  en- 
tirely beyond  the  theological  stage  of  its 
history  ? 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  these 
changes  have  not  come  without  protest.  No 
such  radical  transformation  ever  came  in  any 
department  of  the  world's  life  without  seri- 
ous challenge,  and  this  is  especially  true  in 
the  conservative  realm  of  religion.  The 
theological  attitude  has  had  a  long  and  hon- 
ourable history.  Very  early  in  the  career  of 
Christianity  the  standard  by  which  a  Chris- 
tian was  to  be  judged  came  to  be  an  in- 
tellectual one.  He  must  be  intellectually 
*'  sound,"  hold  a  *'  sound  theology,"  in  a 
word,  be  **  orthodox."  Faith  came  to  be,  not 
the  acceptance  of  the  person  Christ  Jesus, 
but  the  approval  of  a  creed.  Among  the 
Greeks  whose  interests  were  intellectual,  vital 


THE  MINISTEK  AND  THEOLOGY      93 

issues  disappeared  behind  intellectual  ones. 
MoraJs,  service,  life,  ceased  to  be  standards 
of  judgment  as  they  had  been,  preemi- 
nently, in  the  thought  and  ministry  of  Jesus. 
The  creeds  and  systems  of  theology  arose 
demanding  allegiance  and  speedily  found  it. 
So  it  was  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and 
still  is  among  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catho- 
lics. The  Reformers  wrote  new  creeds  with- 
out discarding  or  modifying  the  old,  and 
continued  the  demand  for  allegiance.  This 
demand  they  sternly  enforced  by  appeal  to 
the  civil  arm.  Lutherans,  Calvinists,  Ana- 
baptists, Congregationalists,  Baptists,  Angli- 
cans, Catholics,  all  parties  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  others  at  one  time  or  another,  and 
chiefly  because  of  their  theology.  Their 
intellectual  conception  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, not  the  character  of  their  lives  or 
actions,  was  the  cause  of  this  sufiering. 
In  some  Christian  bodies,  as  we  have  seen, 
this  intellectual  standard  still  prevails.  The 
emphasis  is  still  on  the  teachings.  At  the 
same  time  there  is  in  most  Protestant  bodies, 
and  to  some  extent  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  a  decided  change  in  the  place  of 
emphasis  in  recent  years.  At  the  same  time 
only  a  part  of  any  of  the  denominations  are 
so  affected,  and  as  a  consequence  deep  clefts 


94  A  VITAL  MINISTBY 

are  seen  in  the  fellowship  of  many  commu- 
nions, made  by  the  movement  of  some  and 
the  stability  of  others  of  its  communicants. 

What,  now,  is  the  minister  to  do  in  these 
perilous  and  trying  times  of  theological  tran- 
sition, when  ecclesiastical  bands  are  strain- 
ing and  snapping  and  theological  scaffolding 
is  swaying  and  falling?  There  is  danger 
that  he  will  be  too  theological,  conservative 
and  reactionary,  or  swing  to  the  other  ex- 
treme and  repudiate  all  theology — danger 
that  he  will  be  theologically  strong  and  dry, 
or  theologically  weak  and  consequently  shal- 
low and  feeble.     What  is  he  to  do  ? 

In  the  first  place  let  him  realize  that  there 
is  no  occasion  for  alarm.  Realities  have  not 
changed  and  will  not  change.  God  is  the 
same  Father  that  He  has  always  been, 
man  the  same  sinful  and  needy  creature. 
Let  him  believe  in  the  theological  toilers  of 
to-day  as  much  as  those  of  the  earlier  cen- 
turies. They  are  no  less  able,  no  less  sin- 
cere. They  have  the  same  material  for  the 
construction  of  a  theology  that  the  ancients 
possessed  and  more  beside ;  they  work  in  a 
better  atmosphere,  in  a  period  of  far  greater 
Christian  activity  and  higher  Christian  char- 
acter ;  they  are  trying  to  write  a  theology  for 
the  modern  world  which  will  grip  the  man  of 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      95 

to-day  as  that  of  the  Middle  Ages  gripped 
the  men  of  that  time.  In  their  work  they 
are  seeking  to  take  into  consideration  the 
whole  circle  of  knowledge  and  follow  pres- 
ent-day methods  so  far  as  they  can  be  applied 
to  the  subject,  that  there  may  be  no  failure 
of  appeal  because  of  fault  in  knowledge  or 
method.  It  would  seem  impossible,  when 
all  these  advantages  are  considered,  that  any- 
thing but  good  could  ultimately  come  out  of 
the  current  effort  at  restatement. 

But  far  more  important  than  these  reflec- 
tions is  the  thought  that  the  preacher's  busi- 
ness is  not  theological  at  all  except  in  the 
most  incidental  way.  The  vital  ideal  will 
greatly  help  him  here.  If  he  keeps  steadily 
in  mind  that  his  work  is  the  building  up  of 
the  life  of  his  people  the  occasion  of  much  of 
his  fear,  uncertainty  and  anxiety  will  disap- 
pear. "  I  am  come  that  they  may  have  life,'* 
not  that  they  may  have  a  sound  theology. 
The  Arminianism  of  Wesley  and  the  moderate 
Calvinism  of  Whitefield  were  equally  effect- 
ive in  the  pulpit,  when  uttered  by  a  power- 
ful personality  filled  with  a  passion  for  God 
and  humanity.  There  are  certain  great  relig- 
ious facts  whose  acceptance  with  deep  con- 
viction  are  absolutely  essential  to  efficiency 
in  the  ministry  ;  but  the  manner  in  which 


96  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

these  are  fused  into  a  system  is  of  no 
material  weight  in  the  work  of  the  ministry. 
The  early  non-theological  years  of  Christian 
history  were  among  its  most  triumphant. 
The  minister  need  not,  therefore,  be  anxious 
about  the  chaotic  condition  of  theology  to-day. 
It  is  an  incident  of  the  readjustment  that  had 
to  come  and  will  be  set  right  by  the  scholars 
while  he,  the  preacher,  is  earnestly  engaged 
in  the  work  of  making  men. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  never  be  forgot- 
ten that  Christianity  has  an  intellectual  side 
and  that  every  rational  Christian  will  have  a 
theology,  that  is  a  body  of  Christian  truth 
more  or  less  fully  systematized.  Moreover 
the  richer  and  fuller  this  truth  and  the  more 
completely  it  is  systematized  the  better  it  is. 
No  man  was  ever  weakened  by  the  extensive- 
ness  of  his  knowledge  of  religious  truth  or  the 
thoroughness  with  which  it  was  organized. 
The  danger  to  the  preacher  does  not  consist 
in  the  possession  of  truth  or  the  systematiz- 
ing of  truth,  but  in  making  a  system  of  truth 
or  supposed  truth  an  end  in  itself — a  feeling 
that  he  is  called  to  defend  and  propagate 
that  system  rather  than  build  up  the  life  of 
those  men,  women  and  children  who  are 
committed  to  his  care.  The  moment  the 
preacher  assumes  this  attitude,  thus  losing 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  THEOLOGY      97 

touch  with  the  life  of  men,  his  proper  pulpit 
power  is  gone,  even  if  every  sentence  he  ut- 
ters contains  an  important  truth.  It  is  a  fatal 
defect  in  the  theology  of  the  preacher  when  it 
has  no  vital  touch  with  the  life  of  other  men. 
It  is  equally  defective  if  it  is  not  the  out- 
growth of  his  own  Christian  experience. 
The  working  theology  of  the  pulpit  cannot  be 
handed  down  by  tradition,  already  finished, 
tied  up  and  labelled.  Such  a  product  usually 
is  dry  and  musty  in  the  pulpit,  and  contributes 
very  little  to  the  life  of  the  people.  He  may 
have  received  it  as  the  final  truth,  honoured 
of  his  fathers  and  dear  to  the  saints  in  the 
past,  and  yet  it  may  have  little  more  relation 
to  his  own  spiritual  life  or  that  of  the  men  of 
his  generation  than  a  proposition  in  Euclid. 
The  theology  is  not  his  own.  He  took  it 
whole  from  his  predecessors.  He  has  the 
*•  form  of  sound  words,"  but  none  of  the  sub- 
stance and  red  blood  that  the  generations 
who  made  these  **  forms "  put  into  them. 
The  preacher  needs  a  theology  that  is  his 
own  ;  one  that  has  grown  out  of  his  own  life 
and  experience  and  contains  his  own  best 
thought.  He  can  no  more  get  a  valuable 
working  theology  out  of  books  alone  than  he 
could  get  geometry  by  memorizing  proposi- 
tions, figures  and  demonstrations.     A  vital 


98  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

theology  comes  only  through  the  vital  proc- 
esses of  living,  thinking  and  expressing 
religious  truth  for  one's  self. 

This  making  of  one's  own  theology  is  not 
an  easy  task.  It  requires  work,  toil  of  the 
most  exacting  kind.  But  hard  as  it  is  the 
preacher  ought  resolutely  to  determine  to 
preach  nothing  which  he  has  not  himself 
brought  to  the  test  of  his  own  experience  and 
wrought  out  on  the  anvil  of  his  own  heart. 
He  will  be  tempted  to  take  the  easier  and 
(yes,  let  us  recognize  the  fact)  the  safer  road. 
He  knows  that  a  certain  traditional  theology 
is  necessary  to  his  good  standing  and  pos- 
sible advancement  in  ecclesiastical  circles. 
His  own  living  and  that  of  his  loved  ones  de- 
pends on  his  ability  to  earn  a  support  in  his 
ministerial  calling.  How  near  lies  the  temp- 
tation to  cowardice  !  Or  mental  inertia  may 
be  his  weakness  and  the  fear  of  the  necessary 
toil  may  frighten  him  into  the  appropriation 
of  the  labours  of  the  fathers  without  the 
trouble  of  mental  mastication  and  assimila- 
tion. Or  the  multitudinous  distractions  of 
the  modern  pastorate  may  deter  him  from  all 
real  mental  effort.  In  any  case  his  theology 
will  be  devoid  of  vitality  and  power  in  the 
pulpit.  Such  theology  is  no  longer  truth,  for 
religious    truth    is    living    and    active    and 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THEOLOGY      99 

sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword.  When 
the  life  is  gone  out  of  it  there  remains  only 
the  bleaching  skeletons  of  departed  truths, 
once  beautiful  and  powerful  but  dead  and  use- 
less. He  may  be  as  zealous  for  it  as  if  it  were 
still  alive,  but  its  powerlessness  is  in  no  wise 
altered  by  that  fact. 

In  all  this  it  is  not  intended  to  claim  that 
the  modern  preacher  must  discard  the  old 
theology  and  proclaim  something  that  is 
called  new  in  order  to  be  powerful.  The 
new  may  be  appropriated  in  the  lump  and 
be  just  as  undigested  and  useless  as  the  old. 
The  presumption  is  certainly  in  favour  of  that 
which  has  stood  the  test  of  centuries  and 
has  satisfied  the  mental  and  spiritual  needs 
of  millions.  What  is  said  here  is  not  in  the 
interest  of  either  the  new  or  the  old  as  such, 
but  of  the  true  and  the  vital.  Neither  age 
nor  youth  is  a  proof  of  worth  and  vitality,  so 
far  as  a  system  of  theology  is  concerned. 
What  is  insisted  on  is  the  necessity  for 
vitality  in  the  preacher's  theology,  whether 
it  is  new  or  old.  It  must  come  out  of  his 
own  life,  express  his  own  deep  convictions, 
utter  his  own  personal  religious  knowledge 
and  experience.  The  preacher  cannot  be 
satisfied  with  theological  negations.  It  must 
express  his  positive  convictions. 


100  A  VITAL  MIOTSTEY 

These  and  other  theological  mistakes  will 
be  avoided  if  the  minister  will  only  remem- 
ber that  his  duty  is  to  minister  to  the  life  of 
the  people,  that  his  calling  is  vital  and  only 
incidentally  theological.  Seeking  to  vitalize 
the  people,  his  efforts  will  undoubtedly  react 
and  vitalize  his  theology.  He  will  deliver  a 
message  that  is  not  meant  primarily  to  save 
theology,  but  the  people.  And  the  people 
will  respond  and  his  theology  will  be  saved. 
The  richer,  fuller  and  more  systematic  he  can 
make  his  message  the  better  for  his  people. 
But  let  him  never  forget  that  he  is  deUvering 
it  for  their  sakes,  and  he  will  then  be  careful 
to  present  it  so  as  to  bless  them.  Consider- 
ing the  interests  of  his  people  he  will  not 
proclaim  a  truth  because  it  is  in  his  system, 
but  only  because  of  its  probable  beneficial 
effects  on  his  charge ;  it  will  not  appear  in 
scholastic  .but  in  popular  form.  The  methods 
pursued  in  one  congregation  will  in  another 
be  exchanged  for  others  that  promise  better 
results  in  vital  power.  In  one  this  truth  will  be 
emphasized,  in  another  that,  according  as  there 
is  need.  But  always  the  people  will  be  upper- 
most in  his  thoughts,  for  he  will  steadily  re- 
member that  his  Master  said,  "  I  am  come  that 
they  may  have  life  "  ;  and  further  said,  "  As 
the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you."* 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON 

THE  importance  of  preaching  in  the 
work  of  the  kingdom  of  God  can 
scarcely  be  overestimated.  This 
public  presentation  of  religious  truth  by  word 
of  mouth  was  the  method  of  the  old  prophets, 
it  was  the  plan  of  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  ; 
Luther,  Knox,  Wesley  and  all  other  great 
Christian  leaders  have  accomplished  their 
splendid  tasks  mainly  by  preaching.  Periods 
of  aggressive  and  vital  piety  have  always 
been  characterized  by  diligent  and  effective 
preaching;  and  conversely  vigorous  evan- 
gelical preaching  has  not  failed  to  call  forth 
a  Christianity  with  vision  and  power.  By 
the  testimony  of  English  historians  the 
preaching  of  Wesley  regenerated  eighteenth 
century  England,  and  saved  it  from  the  hor- 
rors of  a  cataclysm  like  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. This  wonderful  work,  surpassing  in 
magnitude  that  of  any  statesman  of  modern 
times,  was  almost  wholly  the  effect  of  inces- 
sant, evangelical,  vital,  practical  preaching,  ex- 
tending to  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  land. 
101 


102  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

Ours  is  a  reading  age.  Never  before  in 
the  world's  history  has  the  printed  page  filled 
so  large  a  place  in  the  life  of  the  people.  In 
the  enormous  literary  stream  there  is  a  large 
element  of  distinctly  religious  literature — 
periodicals,  tracts  and  books.  By  far  "  the 
best  seller  "  in  the  world's  output  of  books  is 
the  Bible,  and  yet  all  this  religious  literature 
has  not  and  will  not  replace  preaching  or 
greatly  reduce  its  importance.  ''  For  seeing 
that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  through 
its  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  was  God's  good 
pleasure  through  the  foolishness  of  the 
preaching  to  save  them  that  believe  "  (i  Cor. 
i.  2i).  The  Christian  religion  is  of  such  a 
nature  that  it  needs  the  advocacy  of  person- 
ality for  its  propaganda. 

Furthermore,  ours  is  an  age  when  the 
science  and  art  of  teaching  is  being  studied 
and  practiced  with  unwonted  diligence.  The 
teacher  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  the  most 
important  personage  in  the  body  politic. 
Education  is  universal.  Naturally  and  prop- 
erly this  intellectual  movement  has  passed 
into  religion,  and  is  to-day  deeply  affecting 
all  our  Christian  work  and  ideals.  The 
Sunday-school  has  multiplied  the  number  of 
religious  teachers  and  increased  the  amount 
of   religious   teaching  to  enormous  propor- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    103 

tions.  But  with  all  the  blessed  results  of  this 
work  already  apparent  and  the  further  benefits 
anticipated,  it  can  never  take  the  place  of  that 
method  which  is  distinctively  called  preach- 
ing. As  a  matter  of  fact  these  various  types 
of  Christian  activity  are  an  admirable  prep- 
aration for  the  more  effective  presentation 
of  truth  from  the  pulpit.  The  well  furnished 
minister  ought  to  be  apt  to  teach,  for  teach- 
ing is  an  important  feature  of  his  work ;  but 
whatever  be  his  ability  in  the  distinctive 
field  of  teaching,  he  must  nevertheless  be  a 
preacher.  The  people  will  be  pleased  if  he  is 
a  good  pastor,  a  skillful  organizer,  an  ac- 
complished scholar.  All  these  they  will, 
however,  forego  if  he  is  a  good  preacher — 
that  he  must  be. 

If,  then,  good  preaching  is  so  essential  it  is 
important  to  discover  the  elements  necessary 
to  effective  preaching.  What  is  the  purpose 
of  preaching,  what  is  a  good  sermon  ?  In  a 
word  its  purpose  is  vital,  the  production  of 
life.  In  accordance  with  the  spiritual  con- 
stitution of  man  God  has  chosen  preaching 
as  the  best  method  of  reaching  him  with  the 
regenerating  power  of  religious  truth.  The 
reason  for  preaching  is  psychological,  and  the 
purpose  of  preaching  is  vital.  Under  the 
blessing  of  God  the  minister  uses  the  sermon 


104  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

for  the  generation,  nourishment  and  growth 
of  a  genuine  and  abounding  spiritual  life  in 
his  hearers.  It  is  not  his  only  means  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  high  and  holy  pur- 
pose, but  it  is  beyond  doubt  the  principal 
means,  so  ordained  by  human  nature  and 
the  God  of  human  nature.  Preaching  and 
the  sermon,  then,  should  be  judged  from 
this  standpoint.  The  sermon  is  made  to 
produce  life,  and  if  it  fails  in  this,  its  sole 
legitimate  purpose,  it  is  a  failure,  however 
famous  and  popular  the  preacher,  however 
numerous  and  enthusiastic  his  hearers. 

If,  now,  the  vital  ideal  of  the  sermon  is  the 
correct  one,  let  us  see  how  the  fact  affects  the 
preparation  and  delivery  of  the  sermon. 
Obviously,  on  that  supposition,  much  that  has 
been  written  on  the  subject  has  been  irrelevant 
if  not  positively  harmful.  The  sermon  can- 
not be  justly  estimated  by  the  standards 
applied  to  other  literature,  for  the  manifest 
reason  that  its  purpose  is  different.  What- 
ever may  be  the  purpose  of  other  literature 
that  of  the  sermon  is  purely  utilitarian.  In- 
deed the  production  of  literature  is  not  a 
purpose  of  preaching  at  all.  The  minister  is 
in  the  business  of  producing  men,  and  the 
sermon  is  one  of  his  means  for  the  attain- 
ment of  that  end. 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  THE  SEEMON    105 

Much  that  has  been  written  on  the  prepara- 
tion and  delivery  of  sermons  has  failed  to 
keep  this  vital  aim  of  the  sermon  steadily  in 
mind.  It  has  been  considered  too  much  from 
the  standpoint  of  literature,  too  much  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  reader  and  too  little 
from  that  of  the  hearer.  Sermons,  it  must 
never  be  forgo cten,  are  made  to  be  heard,  not 
to  be  read.  The  considerations  which  should 
control  their  content  and  construction  are  the 
needs  and  the  mental  and  spiritual  character- 
istics of  the  congregation  sitting  immediately 
before  the  speaker.  Here  and  there  is  an 
audience  which  is  so  cosmopolitan  that  the 
preacher  in  successfully  addressing  it  can,  if 
he  has  the  ability,  make  sermons  which  will 
also  reach  a  much  larger  audience  through 
the  printing  press.  But  preachers  of  such 
ability  are  rare,  and  cannot  be  taken  as 
models  by  the  rest  of  us.  We  must  content 
ourselves  with  the  audience  immediately  be- 
fore us  ;  their  needs  and  their  characteristics 
must  be  met  and  satisfied.  The  sermon  is, 
therefore,  the  most  ephemeral,  specific  and 
local  of  all  forms  of  literature,  if  indeed  it  has 
any  just  claim  to  be  classified  as  literature  at 
all.  Any  sermon  perfectly  adapted  to  one 
occasion  can  never  without  modification  per- 
fectly fit  another.     The  sermon  is,  therefore, 


106  A  VITAL  MIOTSTEY 

almost  necessarily  ephemeral,  and  the  sooner 
the  average  preacher  recognizes  this  fact  the 
better  for  him  and  the  fruitfulness  of  his 
ministryc 

This  means  that  the  plans  for  the  making 
and  delivery  of  sermons  must  be  very  elastic. 
What  is  good  preaching  in  one  community 
may  be  very  poor  in  another.  That  is  good 
preaching  which  reaches  and  blesses  the 
people,  and  that  is  the  best  preaching  which 
best  performs  this  task.  Give  us  above  all 
adaptable  preachers  who  are  thinking  of  the 
people  in  all  their  ministrations.  Frequently 
the  sermon  is  poured  into  some  fixed  homi- 
letical  molds  which  the  preacher  obtained 
years  ago  in  the  seminary,  and  comes  forth 
so  stiff  and  stark  as  to  have  its  effectiveness 
materially  impaired.  The  preacher  has  felt 
that  the  production  of  sermons  in  accord 
with  approved  plans  of  homiletical  workman- 
ship constituted  his  business,  and  if  this 
standard  was  attained  he  considered  himself 
a  good  preacher.  If  his  hearers  did  not 
relish  or  appreciate  his  efforts,  so  much  the 
worse  for  the  hearers ;  it  only  showed  their 
perversity  or  stupidity,  not  his  failure  as  a 
preacher.  Now  this  ought  to  be  changed. 
The  minister  ought  to  realize  that  nothing  is 
good  preaching  unless  it  fits  the  congrega- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    107 

tion  he  is  addressing,  no  matter  how  perfectly 
it  conforms  to  the  most  approved  homiletical 
models.     It  must  fit  and  bless  the  people. 

It  is  not  intended  to  assert  or  even  to  sug- 
gest that  the  study  of  homiletics  is  necessa- 
rily useless  or  injurious.  Far  from  it.  But  it 
is  intended  to  affirm  that  slavery  to  the  homi- 
letical ideal  of  preaching  may  seriously  im- 
pair the  vital  effectiveness  of  the  message. 
Homiletical  rules  are  a  means  to  the  great 
vital  end  of  preaching  and  in  no  sense  an 
end  in  themselves.  The  best  service  homi- 
letics can  render  the  preacher  is  to  loose  him 
and  let  him  go — that  is,  to  give  him  the 
power  to  adapt  himself  and  use  his  gifts  for 
the  delivery  of  a  life-giving  message,  palpi- 
tating with  vital  spiritual  power,  to  the  audi- 
ence that  sits  before  him — to  give  him  this 
high  ideal  and  the  power  to  attain  it.  The 
danger  of  homiletics,  as  of  all  other  studies 
whose  object  is  practical,  is  that  it  will  put 
the  young  preacher  in  a  straight  jacket  of 
ideals  and  rules  that  will  greatly  hamper  the 
free  movement  of  his  own  powers.  The  pur- 
pose of  an  education  is  to  release  and  train 
the  powers  of  men,  but  there  is  constant 
danger  that  it  will  bind  rather  than  loose. 
It  does  so  by  fixing  the  attention  on  subsidi- 
ary matters,   thereby  creating  wrong  ideals 


108  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

which  shackle  individuality  and  destroy  the 
power  of  adaptation.  Paul  found  the  highly 
cultured  audience  of  Mars  Hill  spiritually  the 
most  barren  and  unresponsive  he  ever  ad- 
dressed. No  denomination  of  modern  times 
which  has  insisted  on  a  thorough  education 
as  an  absolute  prerequisite  to  admission  into 
the  ministry  has  been  able  to  reach  the 
masses.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  equally 
significant  that  no  Christian  body  has  been 
able  to  reach  the  cultured  without  an  edu- 
cated ministry.  Want  of  adaptation  through 
inability  or  unwillingness  is  the  explanation. 
The  uneducated  man  is  necessarily  unable  to 
satisfy  the  cultured,  while  the  educated  man 
is  often  either  unwilling  or  unable  to  adapt 
his  methods  of  thought  and  expression  to 
the  uncultured.  A  true  homiletics  should 
help  a  man  to  fit  his  work  to  all  classes, 
whereas  it  too  often  unfits  him  for  work  with 
any  but  the  cultured.  A  practical  homiletics 
needs  to  be  based  on  principles  of  psychol- 
ogy rather  than  upon  rules  of  rhetoric ;  upon 
the  mental  and  spiritual  condition  of  the 
people  to  be  addressed  rather  than  upon  the 
models  of  pulpit  oratory  that  have  charmed 
and  edified  past  generations.  The  educated 
preacher  is  not  necessarily  incapable  of 
adaptation.      Paul    was    a    highly   cultured 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  THE  SEEMON    109 

man,  trained  in  many  respects  into  a  haughty 
narrowness  and  exclusiveness,  and  yet  after 
he  became  a  Christian  he  could  say  of  him- 
self, "  I  am  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that 
by  all  means  I  may  save  some."  It  was  his 
devotion  to^  the  welfare  of  men  that  gave 
him  this  freedom ;  and  equal  devotion  would 
give  almost  any  man  the  power  to  reach 
almost  any  audience.  Of  course  every  man 
has  his  limitations.  Perfect  adaptation  is 
impossible.  What  is  insisted  on  is  that  the 
preacher  shall  consciously  build  his  sermons 
not  to  attain  to  standards  of  literary  excel- 
lence, but  to  reach  and  bless  the  people. 

This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  no 
thought  or  attention  is  to  be  given  to  the 
literary  qualities  of  the  sermon.  On  the 
contrary  the  ideal  that  is  here  being  set  forth 
requires  rather  more  than  less  attention  to 
preparation  ;  for  it  means  that  each  sermon 
is  a  separate  structure  whose  workmanship 
and  style  must  be  determined  by  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  particular  audience  to  which 
it  is  to  be  delivered.  They  are  not  all  to  be 
constructed  on  one  model,  determined  by  the 
methods  of  Chrysostom,  Spurgeon  or  some 
other  great  preacher  of  the  past ;  but  each  is 
to  be  composed  to  meet  its  own  situation. 
This  means  special  attention  to  each  separate 


110  A  VITAL  MIIS^ISTEY 

sermon,  and  consequently  endless  variety  in 
style  and  construction.  Each  separate  sermon 
becomes  a  work  of  art,  specially  designed 
and  executed  to  fit  into  its  own  peculiar 
niche  in  the  temple  of  humanity.  Styles 
will  differ  according  to  the  niche,  and  the 
artist  can  never  neglect  to  give  large  atten- 
tion to  each  creation.  In  some  cases  literary 
finish  will  be  of  the  highest  moment  to  the 
effectiveness  of  the  sermon.  Solecisms,  bar- 
barisms and  even  provincialisms  will  inevi- 
tably and  greatly  obscure  for  a  cultured  audi- 
ence the  truth  that  is  being  presented  ;  on  the 
other  hand  overrefinement  of  style  will  with 
equal  certainty  be  prejudicial  to  the  effective- 
ness of  the  sermon  delivered  to  the  uncultured. 
But  while  each  sermon  is  thus  a  work  of 
art  in  itself  it  must  nevertheless  not  be  for- 
gotten that  there  are  certain  qualities  that  all 
good  sermons  must  have  in  common.  There 
is  no  reason  for  great  variation  in  content  or 
subject  matter  on  account  of  differences  in 
audiences.  The  religious  needs  of  all  men 
are  substantially  the  same.  Sin  is  universal, 
temptations  and  heart  hungers  do  not  greatly 
vary,  the  hopes  and  fears,  weaknesses  and 
aspirations  of  men  vary  in  degree  but  not 
greatly  in  kind.  Every  sermon  should  be 
replete,  therefore,  with  evangelical  truth,  that 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    111 

is  truth  suited  to  meet  the  moral  and  spiritual 
needs  of  all  men.  It  should  comfort  them  in 
their  sorrows,  strengthen  them  in  their  aspira- 
tions, confirm  them  in  their  hopes,  call  them 
to  repentance,  stimulate  their  faith,  assure 
them  of  forgiveness  and  victory  over  sin, 
lead  them  into  communion  and  fellowship 
with  the  Father  and  partnership  in  service 
with  Jesus  Christ.  Nothing  but  evangelical 
truth  will  do  this  for  any  congregation,  cul- 
tured or  boorish.  Within  this  great  body  of 
evangelical  truth  there  is  ample  room  for  all 
the  variety  that  will  ever  be  needed,  for  both 
man  and  God  are  inexhaustible  as  objects  of 
thought,  and  likewise  of  intense  and  perennial 
interest.  Just  as  the  average  reader  "  skips  " 
all  else  in  the  novel  that  he  may  get  the 
story,  that  is  the  human,  so  it  is  precisely 
those  preachers  who  confine  themselves  to 
evangelical  themes  who  to-day  are  heard  by 
the  greatest  numbers.  Occasionally  some 
disappointed  preacher  is  heard  to  assert  that 
the  people  will  not  hear  the  Gospel.  Of 
course  there  are  many  that  will  not  hear  that 
or  anything  else  that  is  good  ;  but  there  can 
be  no  greater  mistake  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher  than  to  turn  away  from  the  Gospel 
in  search  of  more  popular  themes.  Men  are 
more     interested     in    the    Gospel,    clearly, 


112  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

earnestly,  forcibly  and  lovingly  presented, 
than  in  any  other  subject  that  can  possibly 
be  brought  to  their  attention ;  and  there 
ought  to  be  no  doubt  among  Christian  minis- 
ters as  to  the  value  of  such  preaching.  It  is 
the  Gospel  that  attracts  and  regenerates  and 
reforms  the  lifCo 

As  the  subject  need  not  vary  greatly  from 
one  congregation  to  another  of  different 
characteristics  and  culture,  so  there  are  cer- 
tain common  qualities  of  style  which  should 
characterize  all  preaching.  The  language  of 
the  sermon  should  obviously  be  clear  and 
simple,  and  as  attractive  as  possible  to  the 
audience  before  the  preacher.  Everything 
within  the  compass  of  the  preacher's  speak- 
ing powers  should  be  done  to  stimulate  and 
hold  the  attention,  enlighten  the  mind,  arouse 
and  cultivate  the  higher  emotions,  strengthen 
and  direct  the  will.  The  objective  is  the 
making  of  deep  and  lasting  impressions 
which  will  bear  immediate  and  continuous 
fruit  in  nobler  living.  Moreover  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  effect  of  the  sermon 
must  be  gathered  from  one  swift  hearing,  that 
the  more  leisurely  process  of  reading  cannot 
be  used.  Hence  the  preacher  must  strive  to 
deliver  a  discourse  that  will  attract,  be  easily 
understood  and  profoundly  impressive.     Its 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  THE  SERMON    113 

vocabulary  and  language  should  be  as  far  as 
possible  that  of  the  people  to  whom  it  is  ad- 
dressed, its  illustrations  those  with  which  they 
are  familiar.  Words  whose  signification  is 
not  immediately  apprehended  cloud  the 
meaning  and  weaken  the  force  of  the  entire 
sentence  or  paragraph.  The  ideal  is  to 
speak  so  plainly  as  to  render  misunderstand- 
ing impossible.  Unfamiliar  words  cause  a 
sense  of  strangeness,  thus  putting  religion  in 
a  realm  more  or  less  aloof  from  the  life  of  the 
hearers.  If  the  audience  is  a  highly  cultured 
one  the  language  of  polite  literature  will  be 
quite  appropriate  and  effective  ;  but  if  the 
people  are  a  plain  unvarnished  folk  the 
vocabulary  should  be  our  homely  Saxon, 
plain  and  direct.  Not  that  ungrammatical, 
slovenly  or  inaccurate  language  is  necessary 
or  desirable.  However  uncultured  them- 
selves the  congregation  will  wish  their  pastor 
to  employ  correct  speech.  But  the  plain 
Anglo-Saxon  of  the  common  people  is 
adequate  to  the  forcible  and  attractive  ex- 
pression of  all  the  truth  which  the  preacher 
will  ever  need  to  utter,  as  is  abundantly 
shown  by  the  continued  fascination  and 
power  of  Bunyan's  immortal  allegory.  There 
is  a  simplicity  of  speech  as  well  as  of  person 
which  is  sublime. 


lU  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

The  appropriate  use  of  illustrations  is  very 
important  to  effective  preaching.  They  give 
point,  pith  and  pungency  to  the  thought. 
They  illuminate  and  adorn,  they  are  easily 
remembered  and  frequently  constitute  the 
only  part  of  the  discourse  that  is  recalled. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  plainer  people, 
but  all  hearers  are  helped  by  apt  illustrations. 
To  a  matter  of  so  much  consequence  the 
minister  can  afford  to  give  large  attention 
and  thought.  Illustrations  should  be  se- 
lected, wrought  out  and  fitted  to  the  thought 
with  almost  as  much  care  and  attention  as  is 
expended  on  the  thought  itself.  They  should 
be  drawn  as  far  as  practicable  from  the  circle 
of  thought  in  which  the  people  themselves 
move.  Illustrations  which  must  themselves 
be  explained  before  they  can  be  used  to  il- 
luminate the  sermon  are  seriously  defective 
for  that  audience,  and  should  be  used  but 
sparingly.  Illustrations  from  history,  art  and 
other  subjects  more  or  less  familiar  to  a  cul- 
tured audience,  are  less  effective  before  the 
uncultured.  The  farmer  is  moved  by  a  well 
turned  comment  on  things  in  the  country, 
while  the  city-bred  man  responds  to  the  circle 
of  city  illustrations.  The  line  of  demarcation 
is  certainly  not  absolute,  but  the  general  prin- 
ciples on  which  illustrations  should  be  se- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    115 

lected  is  pretty  clear.  The  point  to  be  re- 
membered is  the  fact  that  the  illustration  is 
not  to  be  used  to  fill  space,  nor  to  adorn  the 
tale,  nor  to  display  knowledge  of  nature,  his- 
tory or  other  extensive  and  curious  learning, 
but  solely  for  the  good  of  the  hearers.  It  is 
intended  to  help  them  to  apprehend  and  re- 
member the  truth.  Its  purpose  is  vital  The 
characteristics  and  needs  of  the  people  must 
determine  the  number  and  character  of  the 
illustrations.  They  are  for  the  sake  of  the 
people,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon  or  the 
preacher.  If  they  help  to  produce  an  abound- 
ing life  in  the  hearers  they  are  good.  Let 
the  welfare  of  the  people  determine  the 
method  of  illustrating. 

The  adoption  of  the  vital  ideal  will  assist 
in  the  solution  of  the  important  problem  of 
the  length  of  the  sermon.  In  the  light  of 
this  principle  it  is  clear  that  nothing  ap- 
proaching a  rule  can  be  laid  down  for  all 
preachers  and  all  congregations.  The  needs 
and  characteristics  of  the  congregation  to- 
gether with  the  ability  of  the  preacher  to 
hold  the  attention  are  the  controlling  factors. 
A  country  congregation  who  read  compara- 
tively little  and  hear  preaching  infrequently 
will  profit  by  a  much  longer  sermon  than  the 
city  congregation  will  submit  to.     The  most 


116  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

faithful  members  of  the  city  church  hear 
three  sermons  and  take  part  in  Sunday- 
school  every  week.  For  the  country  people 
life  is  not  so  stressful,  Sunday  is  a  rest  day, 
there  is  no  occasion  for  hurry,  and  hence 
they  want  a  good  strong  meal  of  mental  and 
spiritual  food.  On  the  other  hand  in  the 
city  not  only  are  the  week  days  filled  with 
driving  business,  but  as  Christianity  is  at 
present  organized  and  at  work  Sunday  also 
is  a  very  strenuous  day  for  active  Christian 
people.  Under  these  circumstances  they 
would  be  something  less  or  more  than  hu- 
man if  they  did  not  demand  short  sermons. 
In  every  case  the  sermon  should  be  just  long 
enough  to  do  the  greatest  good  to  the  people 
to  whom  it  is  delivered.  Doubtless  this  can 
never  be  ascertained  with  accuracy;  but  if 
the  preacher  has  the  ideal  consciously  before 
him  he  is  less  likely  to  go  astray  in  this  re- 
gard. He  is  to  remember  that  the  length  of 
the  sermon  is  not  to  be  determined  by  some 
homiletical  ideal,  nor  by  the  usual  custom  of 
himself  or  other  ministers,  nor  by  the  desire 
to  expound  some  truth  in  extensoy  but  solely 
and  alone  by  the  needs  of  the  people  who 
are  before  him.  It  is  well  also  to  remember 
that  he  is  not  likely  to  confer  any  large 
blessing  on  the  people  after  the  average  man 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    117 

begins  to  think  he  has  spoken  long  enough 
and  to  wish  him  to  quit.  Attendance  on 
preaching  is  a  purely  voluntary  matter  which 
must  be  induced  by  attraction  not  by  com- 
pulsion. A  restless,  uninterested  or  resent- 
ful audience  is  litde  benefited  by  the  minis- 
ter's words,  however  true  and  important  they 
may  be  in  themselves.  Moreover  resent- 
ment and  complaint  are  not  simply  futile, 
they  are  positively  harmful.  The  congrega- 
tion will  come  to  church  next  time  not  only 
expecting  to  be  bored  but  also  apprehensive 
lest  they  will  be  scolded.  Their  attitude  is 
not  likely  to  be  favourable  for  a  sympathetic 
and  profitable  hearing.  Let  the  preacher 
control  the  length  of  his  sermon  by  the 
temper  and  characteristics  of  his  congrega- 
tion and  his  ability  to  make  it  a  blessing  to 
them.  Not  homiletical  models  nor  ecclesias- 
tical customs  nor  the  supposed  interests  of 
truth  nor  the  dignity  and  standing  of  the 
ministry  nor  the  asserted  obligation  of  the 
people  to  hear  the  preacher  a  half  hour  or 
longer  each  week,  but  the  needs  and  interest 
of  the  people,  these  considerations  must  con- 
trol. The  purpose  of  preaching  is  practical 
and  it  should  be  controlled  by  practical 
rather  than  by  theoretical  considerations. 
The  relation  of  the  sermon  to  the  remainder 


118  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

of  the  service  is  to  be  determined  in  the  same 
way.  What  proportion  of  the  time  should 
be  given  to  music,  how  much  to  song  and 
prayer,  how  much  to  the  sermon,  how  long 
should  the  entire  service  be?  These  ques- 
tions constantly  perplex  the  minister.  The 
chief  difficulty  in  my  opinion  is  the  feeling 
that  the  services  in  all  churches,  at  least  in 
all  churches  of  the  same  denomination,  should 
be  substantially  the  same.  All  freedom  and 
power  of  adaptation  is  thereby  sacrificed  to 
ecclesiastical  regularity.  But  if  our  principle 
of  the  vital  ideal  in  the  ministry  is  the  correct 
one,  that  is  if  the  interests  of  the  people  are 
to  be  considered  the  matter  of  paramount  im- 
portance, then  the  question  is  much  simpli- 
fied. The  preacher  needs  only  to  determine 
what  is  best  for  his  congregation  and  proceed 
to  do  that.  It  may  be  somewhat  difficult  to 
apply  the  principle,  but  the  principle  itself  is 
perfectly  clear.  The  relation  of  the  sermon 
to  the  rest  of  the  service  may  vary  from 
church  to  church,  from  morning  to  evening, 
from  occasion  to  occasion.  Moreover  one 
preacher  need  not  divide  the  time  to  the  va- 
rious parts  of  the  service  as  any  other  does. 
In  short,  this  principle  which  makes  the  in- 
terests of  the  people  the  controlling  consider- 
ation gives  the  preacher  freedom.     He  not 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  SERMON    119 

only  can  but  should  manage  the  length  of 
the  sermon  and  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
service  in  the  way  that  he  and  his  people  can 
get  most  good  from  it. 

In  the  same  way  the  principle  can  be  ap- 
plied to  all  the  questions  that  arise  with  re- 
gard to  preaching  and  the  sermon,  and  they 
will  be  found  to  be  much  simplified  if  not  en- 
tirely solved  by  its  application.  There  will 
be  freedom,  flexibility  and  adaptabilityo  The 
full  personality  of  the  preacher  can  express 
itself,  unhampered  by  the  habits  and  thoughts 
of  the  past.  David  will  not  be  trying  to  fight 
in  Saul's  armour ;  the  man's  work  will  be  his 
own.  Men  will  stand  at  the  centre  of  his 
thought  and  effort ;  his  ministry  will  be  vital 
and  effective.  He  will  be  toiling  as  a  fellow 
worker  with  God  at  His  own  great  task  of 
making  a  perfect  humanity,  that  is  bringing 
in  the  kingdom  of  God  in  its  fullness  on  the 
earth.  There  will  be  a  joy,  an  efficiency,  an 
optimism  and  hopefulness,  that  are  other- 
wise impossible.  There  will  be  less  restless- 
ness among  the  preachers,  less  dissatisfac- 
tion and  criticism  among  the  people.  The 
vital  ideal  in  the  ministry  will  beget  a  vital 
ministry,  and  a  vital  ministry  will  create  a 
living  and  triumphant  Church. 


VI 

THE  MINISTER  AND  WORSHIP 

THE  usual  services  in  Protestant 
churches  consist  of  two  parts,  more 
or  less  distinct  from  each  other. 
The  earlier  portion,  consisting  of  song, 
prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Scripture,  may 
be  called  the  worship ;  the  remainder,  con- 
sisting of  the  sermon  and  the  closing  exer- 
cises which  are  intended  to  gather  up  and  fix 
the  impressions  thus  far  made,  have  for  their 
main  object  instruction.  It  is  to  be  feared 
that  these  two  parts  of  the  service  are  not 
very  closely  related  to  each  other  in  the 
minds  of  many  worshippers,  both  laymen 
and  preachers.  The  tendency  in  Protestant 
churches  is  to  lay  large  emphasis  on  the  in- 
struction, while  among  the  Catholics  it  is  on 
worship.  But  Protestant  churches  differ 
widely  among  themselves  as  to  the  relative 
length  and  other  relations  of  the  elements  of 
instruction  and  worship  in  the  service.  The 
preacher  naturally  lays  chief  emphasis  on  the 
sermon,  regarding  it  as  the  most  significant 
120 


THE  MINISTER  AND  WOESHIP     121 

part  of  the  service.  In  this  opinion  the  ma- 
jority of  the  laity  in  the  non-liturgical 
churches  agree  with  him.  On  the  other 
hand  the  choir  and  the  musical  part  of  his 
audience,  together  with  the  liturgical  churches 
generally,  are  disposed  to  stress  the  impor- 
tance of  the  service  of  song,  prayer,  reading, 
etc. 

These  differences  which  exist  among  the 
different  denominations  and  different  churches 
of  the  same  denomination  are  not  due  to  any 
thoughtful  consideration  of  the  relative  merits 
of  the  various  practices,  nor  to  the  application 
of  any  intelligible  principle  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  content  of  worship.  They  are 
largely  the  result  of  inheritance.  Luther  with 
his  personal  tastes  and  peculiarities  has  de- 
termined the  general  contents  of  Lutheran 
worship  down  to  the  present  time.  The  per- 
sonal tastes  and  peculiarities  of  Zwingli  and 
Calvin  are  registered  in  the  worship  of  the 
Reformed  and  Presbyterian  Churches.  Cran- 
mer  and  Queen  Elizabeth  loved  ritual  and 
ceremony,  and  their  personal  preferences  are 
crystallized  in  the  ornate  services  of  the  An- 
glican and  Episcopal  Churches  of  the  world. 
The  free  bodies  such  as  the  Anabaptists,  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Baptists,  stood  as  a  protest 
against  the  established  order  and  were  weak 


122  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

in  numbers,  wealth  and  facilities.  They  lacked 
all  the  necessities  and  incentives  to  an  elab- 
orate ritual  and  consequently  reacted  strongly 
against  the  practices  of  their  opponents. 
Naturally,  too,  in  justifying  and  defending 
their  non-conformity,  they  magnified  the  ele- 
ment of  instruction,  minimizing  worship  to 
make  room  for  the  sermon  and  discussions. 
This  tradition  continues  especially  among  the 
Baptists  who  are  less  hospitable  to  ritual  than 
most  other  bodies  and  still  generally  keep 
their  services  quite  simple.  The  extreme  of 
simplicity  and  bareness  was  developed  in  the 
Quaker  meeting,  whose  unique  services  were 
determined  by  the  prejudices  and  religious 
experience  of  their  peasant  founder.  In  the 
same  way  the  character  of  the  worship  among 
the  Methodists  comes  from  Wesley  ;  and  that 
of  other  bodies  has  been  determined  by  the 
founder  or  the  circumstances  of  their  origin  or 
by  some  predominant  figure  in  their  early 
history.  Antiquity,  custom  and  religious 
usage  and  experience  have  hallowed  these 
various  practices  for  their  supporters  and  dev- 
otees until  they  are  among  the  most  sacred 
possessions  of  the  religious  life.  They  are 
practiced  and  defended  because  they  have 
been  inherited  and  hallowed  by  personal  ex- 
perience rather  than  because  of  the  intelligent 


THE  MINISTEK  AND  WORSHIP     123 

apprehension  of  any  intrinsic  superiority. 
Denominations  whose  congregations  differ 
widely  in  culture  and  taste  often  develop 
friction  within  the  body  because  of  the  diver- 
gent wishes  of  these  different  churches.  The 
great  Puritan  controversy  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  in  England  is  a  case  in 
point.  The  various  elements  of  the  worship 
constituted  one  of  the  burning  points  in  the 
struggle  in  which  both  parties  were  loyal  to 
the  State  Church.  The  same  controversy  is 
seen  in  small  compass  in  most  of  the  non- 
liturgical  churches  to-day. 

It  is  not  improper  to  ask  in  the  midst  of 
this  confusion  whether  there  are  any  prin- 
ciples which  might  guide  us  to  peace  if  not 
to  uniformity.  Have  we  not  reached  the 
time  when  we  ought  to  consider  afresh  the 
purposes  of  worship  and  the  best  means  for 
attaining  the  desired  end  ?  Can  we  now 
calmly  discuss  the  various  elements  and  types 
of  worship  from  the  standpoint  of  their  in- 
trinsic merit,  unhampered  by  the  traditions 
of  their  origin  and  usage  ?  Such  a  consid- 
eration would  undoubtedly  make  for  peace 
and  probably  for  the  progress  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Worship  touches  the  man  in 
the  pew^  more  closely  than  any  other  element 
of  religion      It  is  therefore  a  most  important 


124  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

matter.  The  following  discussion  is  intended 
to  be  a  suggestion  of  a  way  to  freedom  and 
peace  and  efficiency. 

The  value  of  worship  is  confined  to  those 
who  are  present  and  participating.  Its  worth 
must  be  judged  by  its  effects  upon  the  lives 
of  these  worshippers.  In  other  words  its  ef- 
fects are  psychological  in  the  religious  sphere. 
It  is  not  intended  to  affect  God  but  men.  No 
doubt  the  Father  is  pleased  with  the  adora- 
tion of  His  children,  but  He  will  probably  be 
the  more  pleased  the  more  this  worship  helps 
His  children.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  any  wor- 
ship could  please  and  glorify  God  unless  it 
had  this  aim  and  effect,  and  having  this  re- 
sult it  could  hardly  fail  to  please  the  God  and 
Father  of  men.  If  this  be  true,  then  the  bene- 
ficial effects  of  worship  on  men  is  the  matter 
of  chief  concern.  The  purpose  is  the  genera- 
tion of  a  psychological  state  or  condition 
which  may  be  termed  spiritual  soundness  or 
good  health.  It  should  stimulate  a  conscious- 
ness of  sin  and  a  desire  for  holiness,  it  should 
call  to  repentance  and  point  the  way  for  faith, 
it  should  strengthen  belief  in  the  unseen 
spiritual  realities  in  the  midst  of  the  material- 
ism of  the  present,  it  should  arouse  elevating 
emotions,  lead  to  the  formation  of  high  and 
holy  purposes  and  strengthen  the  will  for 


THE  MINISTER  AND  WORSHIP     125 

their  accomplishment.  It  should  build  up 
faith,  hope  and  love.  In  battle  it  will  be  the 
crash  of  martial  music,  calling  on  to  high  en- 
deavour ;  in  defeat  it  will  lead  to  resignation, 
submission  and  fortitude  ;  in  discouragement, 
sorrow  and  distress,  it  will  soothe  and  sustain. 
In  short  worship  should  be  myriad-ton gued, 
uttering  in  music,  prayer  and  song  or  cere- 
mony the  message  needed  by  those  pres- 
ent on  each  several  occasion.  The  emotions 
are  life's  motors,  and  worship  is  specially  in- 
tended to  move  the  emotional  nature.  It  will 
be  heaven  when  and  where  the  emotions 
come  into  complete  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God.  Then  the  life  will  be  sound  and  com- 
plete. Worship  should  seek  to  realize  these 
conditions  in  the  life  of  the  worshipper.  It 
should  serve  the  life  of  the  men  and  women 
there  present.  God  can  have  no  other  pur- 
pose in  it.  No  forms  or  ceremonies  can  be 
sacred  to  Him  in  themselves.  At  a  certain 
point  in  their  history  the  Israelites  trusted  in 
the  fact  that  they  were  the  elect  nation  and 
had  Jerusalem  the  holy  city  as  their  capital. 
But  Jeremiah  and  other  prophets  informed 
them  that  all  this  but  aggravated  their  guilt ; 
their  ceremonies  were  hateful  to  God  unless 
righteousness  rolled  down  as  a  flood  and  a 
holy  people  made  use  of  these  blessings. 


126  A  VITAL  MimSTEY 

They  were  thinking  of  the  institutions  of  re- 
ligion, He  of  the  life  of  the  people.  Religious 
ceremonies  and  holy  places  have  no  signifi- 
cance to  Him  apart  from  the  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. Worship  is  to  be  considered  from  just 
one  standpoint,  that  of  its  value  to  the  people. 
The  consistent  application  of  this  principle 
makes  certain  conclusions  obvious  and  inevi- 
table. In  the  first  place  this  principle  makes 
it  clear  that  there  must  be  freedom  and 
variety  in  worship.  If  God  cared  for  worship 
in  itself  there  could  be  one  best  form  that 
satisfied  Him  always  and  everywhere,  for  He 
is  the  unchangeable  God.  But  since  its  ef- 
fects are  to  be  looked  for  in  the  people  rather 
than  in  God,  there  must  be  adaptation  to 
their  needs ;  and  since  these  needs  vary  from 
place  to  place  there  must  be  variety  in  wor- 
ship. Common  elements  there  will  be,  of 
course,  in  all  helpful  worship,  because  the 
fundamental  characteristics  of  human  nature 
are  found  in  all  men.  But  it  is  equally  cer- 
tain that  the  vast  differences  in  culture,  taste, 
religious  knowledge  and  spiritual  attainments 
among  worshippers  render  wide  variations 
necessary  in  the  adaptation  of  worship  to  the 
needs  of  all.  There  is  no  reason  why  all  de- 
nominations should  have  the  same  forms  of 
worship ;    neither  is   there  any   reason   for 


THE  MINISTER  AND  WOESHIP     127 

exact  uniformity  in  the  usages  of  the  various 
churches  of  the  same  denomination,  where 
there  are  variations  in  taste  and  in  mental  and 
spiritual  insight.  The  Scriptures  contain  no 
forms  of  Christian  worship,  while  the  wisdom 
and  experience  of  all  the  Christian  centuries 
is  not  equal  to  the  task  of  producing  a  liturgy 
which  will  serve  the  needs  of  all  men  on  all 
occasions.  One  of  the  most  irrational  acts  in 
all  Christian  history  is  the  attempt  to  impose 
the  same  forms  of  worship  upon  all  the  varied 
conditions  and  classes  of  people  to  be  found 
in  a  nation,  under  severe  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  penalties.  It  brought  hypocrisy,  blood- 
shed and  ruin,  but  it  did  not  and  could  not 
secure  uniformity.  It  failed  to  take  into  ac- 
count the  fact  that  men  are  very  different  in 
their  needs  and  that  worship  is  designed  to 
meet  those  needs.  No  one  form  of  worship 
can  possibly  satisfy  all  these  needs  no  matter 
whether  the  form  under  consideration  be  the 
noisy  worship  of  the  Salvation  Army,  the 
more  dignified  service  of  the  average  non- 
liturgical  church  or  the  ornate  liturgy  of  the 
Anglicans.  No  one  of  them  can  possibly 
best  fit  and  serve  all  classes.  The  incon- 
gruity and  futility  of  the  Salvation  Army  in 
St.  Paul's  cathedral  would  hardly  be  greater 
than  that  of  an  Anglican  rector  in  robes  on 


128  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

the  street  corner  reading  his  service.  Neither 
service  would  be  suited  to  its  alien  surround- 
ings. 

If  the  needs  of  the  people  are  to  be  con- 
sidered rather  than  some  fancied  sacredness 
or  excellence  in  traditional  forms,  then  any  of 
these  forms  may  be  used,  modified  or  dis- 
carded according  as  the  occasion  may  seem 
to  require.  Is  there  anything  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  to  prevent  a  liturgical  church  from 
laying  aside  its  more  formal  worship  if  it  can 
thereby  better  serve  the  people  where  it  is 
located  ?  On  the  other  hand  would  a  non- 
liturgical  church  lose  any  of  its  character  or 
usefulness  if  it  could  better  serve  some  of  its 
congregations  by  the  use  of  a  more  elaborate 
service  ?  Does  not  the  highest  loyalty  to 
the  cause  of  Christ  demand  freedom  in  this 
regard  ? 

Among  a  cultured  and  instructed  people 
the  dignity,  beauty  and  catholicity  of  the 
liturgy  might  well  make  it  more  useful  than 
an  unwritten  service  in  its  effects  on  the 
life  of  the  participants.  It  is  the  product  of 
the  thought,  life  and  experience  of  genera- 
tions of  saintly  men  and  women.  It  cannot 
fail  to  be  helpful  to  many  as  is  proven  by  its 
extensive  use.  But  to  impose  it  on  all  wor- 
shippers would  be  as  irrational  as  to  forbid  it 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  WOESHIP     129 

to  all,  or  to  impose  on  all  the  unconventional 
services  of  the  Salvation  Army,  in  the  hope 
of  producing  the  same  ebullition  of  relig- 
ious feeling  among  all  possible  classes  of 
people.  Booth's  followers  strive  by  every 
means  suggested  by  common  sense,  experi- 
ence and  religious  zeal  to  hold  the  attention 
and  bless  the  lives  of  the  irreverent,  un- 
sympathetic and  often  debauched  and  be- 
sotted humanity  of  the  streets  ;  the  Episcopal 
rector  has  a  totally  different  audience  under 
equally  different  surroundings.  Booth  broke 
away  from  all  accepted  forms  and  methods  of 
worship  and  Christian  work  because  they 
would  not  serve  his  purposes.  He  was  after 
men  of  a  certain  class,  the  outcasts  whom  the 
churches  never  touched,  and  he  created  forms 
which  would  reach  and  help  that  class.  In 
doing  so  he  not  only  saved  a  mass  of  neg- 
lected people,  but  also  gave  to  all  men  an  ex- 
cellent lesson,  turning  their  attention  from 
the  sacredness  of  methods  to  the  sacredness 
of  men.  According  to  him  the  effectiveness 
of  the  service  in  attracting  and  helping  men 
was  to  be  its  criterion  of  judgment.  The 
vital  ideal  must  dominate,  he  thought,  and 
wherever  there  is  life  there  will  be  variety. 
Accordingly  variety  was  and  continues  to  be 
the  most  striking  feature  of  the  Army  services. 


130  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

In  like  manner  there  is  no  good  reason,  it 
would  seem,  why  any  two  churches  of  the 
Baptist  or  any  other  persuasion  should  have 
precisely  the  same  services.  Common  sense 
and  religious  interest  would  seem  to  dictate 
a  policy  of  complete  freedom  in  the  choice  of 
such  methods  of  worship  as  will  best  serve 
the  needs  of  each  congregation.  And  yet 
in  the  non-liturgical  churches  there  is  a 
rather  rigid  uniformity  from  which  any 
church  or  minister  may  depart  only  at  the 
cost  of  some  loss  of  ecclesiastical  standing. 
Uniformity  in  a  written  or  an  unwritten  form 
is  a  fetish  of  many  pious  minds  and  a  refuge 
of  lazy  preachers  which  has  little  to  com- 
mend it  in  the  fruits  of  vital  living.  Let  the 
service  be  made  to  fit  and  bless  the  individual 
congregations. 

The  vital  principle  may  also  play  the  r61e 
of  peacemaker  between  the  advocates  of 
the  liturgical  and  the  non-liturgical  services. 
The  test  of  the  service  is  its  effect  on  the 
congregation.  The  liturgy,  being  the  prod- 
uct of  much  of  the  best  Christian  thought 
and  experience  of  the  past,  will  always  be 
beautiful  and  adequate  in  form.  It  is  not 
dependent,  in  these  respects,  on  the  ability 
and  faithfulness  of  the  individual  minister 
who  officiates.     But  it  may  be  conducted  in 


THE  MINISTER  AND  WORSHIP     131 

such  a  perfunctory  manner  as  to  counteract 
all  its  excellencies.  And  the  tendency  is 
undoubtedly  in  this  direction,  since  the  min- 
ister is  not  compelled  to  arouse  himself  in 
preparation  for  the  worship,  knowing  that  its 
form  is  prescribed  for  him  and  has  been 
recited  by  him  hundreds  of  times  already. 
This  perfunctoriness  is,  however,  by  no 
means  necessary,  and  the  service  is  often 
read  with  as  much  fervour  and  impressive- 
ness  as  any  ex  ternpore  service  could  possibly 
have.  Moreover  the  frequent  repetition  of 
these  forms  of  worship  gradually  creates  an 
atmosphere  of  sacredness  which  helps  the 
worshipper  who  is  familiar  with  them,  even 
when  the  leader  falls  a  victim  to  his  own 
incompetence  or  indifference. 

On  the  other  hand  the  ex  tempore  service, 
while  far  more  adaptable  than  the  written 
service,  is  almost  wholly  dependent  on  each 
individual  minister  for  both  its  form  and  its 
fervour.  If  he  is  devoid  of  culture  its  form 
will  inevitably  be  defective  and  crude,  no 
matter  how  great  its  fervour.  If  he  is  indo- 
lent or  careless  of  the  service  it  will  be  want- 
ing both  in  excellence  of  form  and  in  spiritual 
fervour.  In  both  the  written  and  the  un- 
written service  there  may  be  utter  perfunc- 
toriness and  there  may  be  real  spiritual  fer- 


132  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

vour.  In  both  cases  much  depends  on  the 
minister.  In  the  hands  of  a  vital  and  faithful 
man  the  unwritten  service  has  possibilities  of 
warmth  and  adaptability  to  all  congregations 
and  occasions  which  the  unwritten  service 
cannot  rival.  The  unlettered  man  with  the 
uncultured  congregation  naturally  suits  his 
work  to  his  people,  while  he  would  be  unable 
to  handle  a  liturgy.  The  unwritten  service 
permits  a  greater  variety  of  preachers  and  a 
greater  variety  in  the  congregations.  For 
its  highest  excellence  and  effectiveness  it 
requires  a  very  high  order  of  ability  and 
faithfulness  in  the  ministry ;  higher  perhaps 
than  is  necessary  for  an  effective  service  with 
the  liturgy.  If  all  ministers  were  capable  of 
perfectly  adapting  the  unwritten  service  to 
the  congregation  before  them  and  willing  to 
undergo  the  labour  necessary  to  perform  this 
task  it  would  always  be  the  best.  But  this 
will  never  be  true,  and  many  Christian  people 
will  continue  to  find  greater  helpfulness  in 
the  liturgy  than  in  the  ex  tempore  service. 
This  is  proven  by  the  way  in  which  other 
communions  lose  their  members  to  the  li- 
turgical services  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Feeling  this  pull  some  of  the  non-liturgical 
churches  have  recently  drawn  up  written 
services  which  may  be  used  if  desired  in  any 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  WORSHIP     133 

of  their  congregations,  and  other  bodies^ 
who  have  not  gone  so  far  as  yet,  are 
nevertheless  beautifying  and  elevating  their 
services. 

On  the  other  hand  the  weakness  of  the 
liturgy  is  seen  in  the  revolt  against  it  in 
England  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in  the 
further  fact  that  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
America  has  never  greatly  influenced  the 
masses  of  the  people.  It  is  not  a  people's 
church  and  probably  never  will  be.  The 
character  of  its  services  is  probably  the  chief 
cause  of  its  want  of  popularity.  The  com- 
mon people  weary  of  its  stiffness  and  for- 
mality. The  elevation  and  uniformity  of 
its  worship  would  make  wide  popularity 
impossible.  It  appeals  to  a  rather  small 
but  quite  definite  class  of  society,  and  not 
strongly  to  the  rest.  The  same  statement  of 
inadequacy  for  universal  use  may  be  made 
with  equal  justice  of  all  other  forms  of  wor- 
ship when  rigidly  adhered  to.  Each  has  its 
excellencies,  but  each  has  also  defects  that 
render  universal  appeal  impossible.  And 
yet  is  not  every  church  and  denomination 
called  of  God  to  reach  all  classes  of  society  ? 
If  this  be  true  what  is  needed  is  elasticity, 
the  ability  and  the  disposition  to  make  use  of 
that  form   of  service   which   will   bring  the 


134  A  VITAL  MINISTBY 

greatest  blessings  to  the    participants  and 
hearers. 

The  most  striking  negation  of  this  prin- 
ciple is  the  worship  of  the  Catholic  Church 
which  is  still  kept  in  the  Latin  language. 
Notwithstanding  much  symbolic  action  the 
worship  is  little  understood ;  the  people  see 
little  more  than  a  dumb  show  which  is  any- 
thing else  than  a  "  rational  service.'*  The 
devout  Catholic  believes  this  worship  works 
in  a  magical  way  to  bless,  even  when  it  is  not 
understood.  In  fact  he  believes  it  has  or 
may  have  a  blessing  for  those  who  are  absent ; 
even  the  dead  may  be  blessed  by  it.  Protes- 
tantism holds  that  the  benefits  of  worship 
must  be  appropriated  by  the  rational  proc- 
esses of  the  mind  ;  the  significance  of  the 
worship  must  be  grasped  and  assimilated  by 
the  thinking  man.  At  bottom  the  Latin 
service  is  retained  by  the  Catholics,  because 
the  service  itself  is  regarded  as  sacred  and 
pleasing  to  God.  Attention  is  fixed  on  the 
service  rather  than  on  the  men  who  are  to  be 
blessed.  It  has  no  message  for  the  "  un- 
learned and  ignorant  man."  The  first  dic- 
tate of  the  vital  principle  is  that  the  service 
shall  be  understood.  This  will  necessarily 
put  it  in  the  vernacular  of  the  people.  Let 
it  be  in  English,  French,  German,  Yiddish, 


THE  MIOTSTER  AND  WORSHIP     135 

whatever  the  people  speak  and  understand. 
The  people  and  not  the  service  constitute  the 
object  of  God's  solicitude. 

The  vital  principle  requires  that  the  entire 
service — language,  quality  and  type  of  music, 
circle  of  thought  and  other  constituents — 
should  be  within  the  easy  comprehension  of 
the  people  present.  One  had  almost  as  well 
speak  in  a  foreign  tongue  as  to  make  use  of 
a  vocabulary  and  language  that  the  people 
do  not  comprehend.  Elegant  and  classic 
diction,  abstruse  thought  and  extensive  vo- 
cabulary are  not  only  lost  on  an  uncultured 
audience,  they  are  worse  than  lost.  They 
endanger  the  attendance  and  interest  of  the 
people  by  making  them  feel  inferior  and  in- 
capable of  reaching  up  to  religious  thought. 
The  pastor,  the  church  and  its  work,  seem 
far  away,  unsympathetic  and  unrelated  to  the 
daily  tasks  and  trials  of  their  simple  lives. 
Religion  itself  is  likely  to  be  thought  of  as 
something  for  the  church  house,  something 
that  needs  to  be  shut  away  from  the  light  of 
common  day  in  the  **  dim  religious  light "  of 
the  sanctuary  ;  something  for  the  Sabbath  and 
the  clergy,  for  women  and  children,  but  not 
for  ordinary  mortals  with  the  grime  and  soot 
of  life  upon  them.  The  hold  of  religion  on 
the  whole  of  life  is  thus  endangered. 


136  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

One  of  the  severest  tests  of  the  devotion 
and  adaptability  of  the  cultured  minister  is 
his  ability  and  willingness  to  lay  aside  the 
fringes  and  adornments  of  culture  and  so 
come  at  the  heart  of  realities  as  to  hold  and 
help  the  plain  man  in  his  worship.  The 
want  of  this  adaptability  is  the  explanation 
of  the  frequent  failures  of  cultured  men  where 
others  of  inferior  native  gifts  and  smaller  cul- 
ture succeed  gloriously.  The  latter  knows 
the  people  he  addresses  and  fits  his  modes  of 
thought,  feeling  and  expression  to  them ; 
the  former  either  does  not  know  them  or  finds 
himself  unwilling  or  unable  to  adapt  himself. 

In  like  manner  the  music  and  song  should 
be  within  the  reach  of  the  people.  It  is  a 
matter  of  common  observation  that  sacred 
music  of  the  highest  quality,  exquisitely  ren- 
dered, fails  to  attract  the  masses.  They  do 
not  comprehend  it,  it  has  no  message  or  help 
for  them.  Popular  gospel  hymns,  sung  with 
verve  and  vigour,  may  not  satisfy  the  artistic 
taste  of  the  cultured,  but  they  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  worship  for  the  common  man  far  bet- 
ter than  more  elevated  efforts.  The  music 
and  service  of  the  Salvation  Army  offend  the 
cultured  but  save  the  human  wrecks  of  the 
street.  Christian  music  should  help  to  save 
the  people.     It  is  inexcusable  indifference  to 


THE  MIOTSTER  AND  WOESHIP     137 

the  purposes  of  worship  to  insist  on  elevated 
music  where  the  simple  would  serve  the  in- 
terests of  men  better.  It  is  not  the  music  but 
the  people  that  the  churches  should  seek  to 
elevate  and  save.  Just  as  rapidly  as  the 
progress  of  the  people  will  permit  an  eleva- 
tion of  the  music  let  the  improvement  be 
made  ;  but  let  it  be  kept  clear  that  all  changes 
are  in  the  interest  of  the  people  rather  than  of 
the  music.  The  richest  and  juiciest  hay  be- 
comes food  for  the  cattle  only  by  being  put 
within  their  reach.  It  is  not  the  taste  of  the 
minister  or  of  the  paid  choir  that  must  be  con- 
sulted and  satisfied,  but  the  taste  and  needs  of 
those  who  sit  in  the  pews. 

One  other  question  is  settled  by  the  appli- 
cation of  the  vital  principle  to  worship — the 
relative  length  and  other  relations  existing 
between  the  service  and  the  sermon.  The 
choir  wants  a  lengthier,  more  elaborate,  ele- 
vated and  ambitious  service ;  the  preacher 
wants  the  time  for  his  sermon.  Neither  may 
be  thinking  of  the  needs  of  the  people,  the 
interested  third  party  for  whom  all  the  services 
exist  and  by  whom  they  are  supported.  How 
shall  the  contention  be  settled  ?  Obviously 
by  considering  the  interests  of  the  people. 
No  universal  rule  can  possibly  be  laid  down. 
Usually  the  less  instructed  the  people  are  the 


138  A  VITAL  MINISTBY 

more  they  will  need  to  have  the  sermon 
stressed,  and  the  more  they  will  respond  to 
the  sermon  in  comparison  with  their  response 
to  the  rest  of  the  service.  As  they  become 
more  cultured,  think  and  read  for  themselves 
more  extensively,  attend  services  more  fre- 
quently, the  more  they  are  likely  to  value 
worship  in  comparison  with  the  instruction 
of  the  sermon.  Let  the  minister  resolutely 
put  their  interests  first  no  matter  what  his 
personal  feelings  may  be  or  what  sacrifices  it 
may  require  at  his  hands.  Not  his  reputa- 
tion or  wishes,  not  any  usual  custom  or  fixed 
standard,  but  the  interests  of  the  people  must 
control. 

The  whole  contention  of  this  chapter 
amounts  to  this — the  purpose  of  worship  is 
the  blessing  of  the  people,  the  building  up  of 
the  life  of  the  people.  No  form  of  Christian 
worship  now  in  use  is  wholly  devoid  of  worth 
in  the  prosecution  of  this  task.  All  forms 
have  elements  of  strength,  and  at  the  same 
time  suffer  from  defects  peculiar  to  themselves. 
No  one  form  of  worship  appeals  equally  to 
all  classes.  Therefore  the  ideal  of  a  uniform 
service,  for  all  congregations,  either  written 
or  unwritten,  is  a  fetish  which  should  be  dis- 
carded for  the  ideal  of  flexibility  and  adap- 
tation to  the  needs  of  the  congregations  as 


THE  MINISTER  AND  WORSHIP     139 

those  needs  manifest  themselves  in  actual 
practice.  Insistence  on  uniformity  is  unwise 
and  contrary  to  both  common  sense  and  to 
the  purpose  of  worship,  which  is  the  blessing 
of  the  people  who  are  personally  present. 
All  churches  and  ministers  should  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  to  make  use  of  those 
forms  of  worship  which  will  mean  most  to 
the  lives  of  the  people. 


VII 

THE  MINISTER  AND  CHRISTIAN  ARCHI- 
TECTURE AND  ART 

IN  the  matter  of  church  architecture  two 
ideals  are  at  the  present  time  struggling 
for  ascendency.  In  the  thought  of 
some  Christian  men  the  church  building  is 
a  workshop,  the  people's  house,  and  is  to  be 
used  freely  for  all  good  purposes  which 
promise  the  uplift  of  humanity.  It  is  not  for 
use  one  day  in  seven  only  but  every  day  in 
the  week ;  not  for  worship  and  preaching 
alone,  but  also  for  teaching,  social  meetings, 
lectures,  reading,  and  even  for  recreation, 
exercise  and  amusements.  Little  thought 
or  money  must  be  expended  for  esthetic  or 
devotional  effect.  Indeed  such  use  of  **  the 
Lord's  money  "  is  little  short  of  misappropri- 
ation of  funds  when  there  are  so  many  souls 
to  save  and  so  much  misery  to  alleviate. 
So  it  is  said.  This  ideal  is  frankly  utilitarian 
— a  utilitarianism  in  which  the  house  is  re- 
garded as  having  no  value  in  itself  as  a 
message  or  educative  influence,  but  only  as 
140 


CHEISTIAN  AECHITECTUEE        141 

the  shop  in  which  the  work  is  done,  the  plat- 
form from  which  the  message  is  delivered. 

Others  regard  the  church  as  God's  house, 
sacred  and  separate  from  all  ordinary  life. 
The  common  light  of  day  must  be  softened 
by  stained  glass  windows,  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  daily  life  must  be  shut  out  as  far 
as  possible,  the  head  must  be  reverently 
bowed  as  one  seats  himself  on  the  sacred 
cushions,  conversation  must  be  subdued  to 
an  awed  whisper  or  tabooed  altogether. 
"  The  Lord  is  in  His  holy  temple  :  let  all  the 
earth  keep  silence  before  Him."  The  house 
itself  is  sacred,  the  abode  of  God,  a  message 
to  men.  Much  attention  and  money  must 
be  devoted  to  religious  symbolism  and  the 
artistic  beautifying  of  the  house.  No  amount 
of  money  or  time  are  too  great  to  expend  on 
a  building  which  is  erected  to  the  glory  of 
God.  If  instruction,  lectures,  amusements, 
must  be  had  (and  it  is  admitted  that  they  have 
their  place),  they  must  be  housed  in  a  neigh- 
bouring building  which  is  not  so  sacred  as 
this  "  house  of  God."    So  these  people  believe. 

These  two  conceptions  of  the  character 
and  use  of  a  church  building  are  sharply 
clashing  at  the  present  time.  The  former  is 
an  exaggerated  Protestant  view,  the  latter 
is  the  Catholic  conception.    The  fundamental 


142  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

conceptions  of  the  Christian  religion  itself  are 
involved  in  the  choice  between  these  two 
types  of  architecture.  Does  the  Christian 
religion  find  adequate  and  appropriate  ex- 
pression in  art  and  architecture,  sacred  days 
and  seasons,  fixed  ceremonies,  or  in  the 
sanctified  lives  of  men  ?  Does  any  religious 
institution  glorify  God  except  as  it  blesses 
men?  Is  the  thing  to  be  aimed  at  in  the 
erection  of  a  church  building  the  service  of 
men  or  that  intangible  something  called  the 
glory  of  God  ?  The  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions determines  one's  attitude  towards  the 
church  building.  The  vital  ideal  of  the 
Christian  religion  puts  us  frankly  on  the  side 
of  the  view  that  the  service  of  men  is  the 
only  way  to  serve  God  or  glorify  Him  ;  and 
if  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  types  of  archi- 
tecture must  be  chosen  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  other  we  should  unhesitatingly  select  the 
first,  the  one  which  seeks  the  welfare  of  men 
as  the  supreme  reason  for  the  existence  of 
church  buildings. 

But  we  are  not  reduced  to  the  alternative 
of  choosing  the  one  or  the  other.  A  litde 
reflection  will  make  it  apparent  that  each 
type  has  an  ideal  at  its  base  which  may  be 
made  of  great  value  to  men. 

The  pagans  regarded  their  temples  as  the 


CHEISTIAN  AECHITECTURE        143 

dwelling  places  of  their  gods.  The  Hebrews 
had  much  the  same  conception.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  strange  that  we  find  the  same  feel- 
ings among  the  Christians  soon  after  they 
began  to  have  separate  buildings  for  their 
worship  and  religious  work.  This  sense  of 
the  special  presence  of  God  in  the  church 
was  intensified  and  made  more  concrete  by 
the  rise  of  the  view  that  Christ  is  really 
present  in  the  supper.  In  the  ceremony  of 
the  mass,  it  was  thought,  the  sacrifice  of 
Calvary  was  repeated  and  God  became  ac- 
tually and  visibly  present  in  the  form  of 
bread  and  wine.  The  altar,  where  this  mys- 
terious tragedy  took  place  and  the  blessed 
presence  was  manifested,  became  the  centre 
of  thought  and  attention.  The  awful  mys- 
tery of  the  divine  presence  enveloped  it. 
Accordingly  the  great  cathedrals  and  many 
of  the  parish  churches  of  the  Middle  Ages 
were  erected  as  the  dwelling  places  of  God 
in  which  adoration  of  the  divine  presence 
thought  to  be  present  in  the  Eucharist  was 
the  only  action  to  be  considered.  The  whole 
structure  stood  about  the  altar  where  God 
was  visibly  present.  With  such  a  conception 
of  God  and  the  church  nothing  but  awe- 
struck silence  and  humble  prostration  are 
appropriate    on  the  inside  of  the  building. 


144  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

Nothing  of  the  freedom  and  the  various  ac- 
tivities within  the  buildings  of  the  modern 
Protestant  churches  can  be  expected  from 
men  who  hold  such  a  view  of  the  supper. 
This  conception,  being  fundamental  with  the 
Catholics,  of  course  abides  with  them. 

The  Reformation,  by  abolishing  the  mass 
and  establishing  a  more  spiritual  conception 
of  God,  wrought  a  great  change  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  functions  of  a  church  building. 
It  was  no  longer  regarded  as  the  dwelling 
place  of  God,  nor  was  He  thought  to  be 
present  in  any  such  special  visible  form  as 
was  claimed  by  the  Catholics  to  be  true  in 
their  churches.  The  Bible,  the  reading  desk 
and  the  pulpit  became  the  centre  of  attention 
and  thought  and  instruction  tended  to  dis- 
place or  at  least  minimize  ceremonial  wor- 
ship. The  sermon  took  the  place  of  the 
mass  and  churches  were  henceforth  designed 
and  built  to  facilitate  public  speaking.  God 
was  recognized  as  everywhere  present,  and 
could  be  found  outside  as  well  as  inside  the 
church  building.  Men  did  not  come  to 
church  to  find  God,  but  to  get  the  help  which 
comes  from  the  presence  and  instruction  of 
men  who  know  God. 

In  recent  years  the  functions  of  the  Prot- 
estant churches  have  been  greatly  enlarged, 


CHRISTIAN  ARCHITECTURE        146 

occasioning  further  modifications  of  church 
architecture.  First  came  the  Sunday-school 
with  its  study  of  the  Scripture,  demanding 
facilities  for  teaching  which  the  old  catechet- 
ical curriculum  and  method,  with  the  careful 
home  instruction  then  in  vogue,  did  not  need. 
Thus  came  the  Sunday-school  addition  to 
the  church;  then  followed  rooms,  depart- 
ments, etc.  Still  more  recently  the  effort  of 
the  churches  to  enlarge  their  field  of  service, 
stem  the  flood  of  questionable  amusements 
and  control  the  social  life  of  the  young  has 
stimulated  the  introduction  of  libraries, 
kitchens,  swimming  pools,  equipment  for 
basket-ball,  and  similar  facilities.  All  this 
has  created  new  architectural  problems  which 
have  been  solved  in  many  different  ways. 
But  all  of  them  have  further  broken  up  the 
unity  and  harmony  of  the  church  building  as 
a  whole  and  have  tended  to  dissipate  the  at- 
mosphere of  sanctity  and  worship. 

Such  in  brief  outline  has  been  the  develop- 
ment of  the  form  and  significance  of  church 
architecture,  and  the  ideals  that  predominate 
in  the  various  types.  The  old  ecclesiastical 
ideal  tends  to  make  the  building  useless  for 
every  purpose  except  ceremonial  worship, 
and  the  newest  ideal  tends  to  make  it  useful 
for  everything  except  worship.     Each  view 


146  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

is  seriously  defective  alone  and  in  itself. 
Can  they  be  combined  into  an  ideal  architec- 
ture for  the  modern  church  ?  Can  a  church 
not  be  made  both  useful  and  worshipful  ? 

The  newer  ideal  is  undoubtedly  correct  in 
its  insistence  that  the  vital  interests  of  men 
must  be  the  controlling  consideration.  But 
we  are  not  compelled  to  choose  between  a 
useful  house  and  a  beautiful  and  worshipful 
one.  Rather  we  are  obligated  to  discover 
and  build  the  house  that  will  contribute  most 
to  the  life  of  man,  the  whole  man — the  house 
that  will  afford  for  man  the  service  which 
God  wants  the  church  to  render.  The 
danger  of  the  first  ideal  is  secularization, 
that  of  the  second  is  isolation  ;  the  former  is 
vital  but  is  in  danger  of  losing  religion,  the 
latter  is  religious  but  tends  to  lose  vitality ; 
the  former  minimizes  worship,  the  latter  has 
the  same  effect  on  activity. 

Having  affirmed  that  usefulness  is  the 
final  criterion  by  which  to  judge  church 
architecture  it  remains  to  inquire  what  will 
make  it  most  useful  for  its  purposes.  Has 
nothing  in  a  building  any  value  for  the  pur- 
poses of  a  church  except  good  acoustics, 
plenty  of  rooms  for  Sunday-school  and  other 
organizations,  facilities  for  exercise,  amuse- 
ments and  similar  forms  of  service  ?     Have 


CHEISTIAN  AECHITECTURE        147 

Christian  art  and  architecture  no  value  for  the 
life  of  men  ?  Are  they  not  useful  ?  Assuredly 
so.  And  yet  their  religious  and  ethical  value 
are  often  exaggerated.  The  noblest  church 
buildings  of  earth  arose  during  the  Middle 
Ages  when  moral  and  religious  life  were  at 
the  ebb  tide.  They  were  built  **  for  the  glory 
of  God."  Wealth  of  money  and  talent  and 
skill  were  lavished  upon  them.  All  that  art 
and  architecture  could  do  towards  the  ex- 
pression and  fostering  of  religious  truth  and 
life  was  accomplished  in  the  erection  of  these 
glorious  piles.  It  is  not  likely  that  they  will 
ever  be  surpassed  in  grandeur,  beauty  and 
impressiveness  ;  but  there  was  little  thought 
of  serving  men  by  them  or  in  them,  and  men 
have  been  little  served.  How  sordid  and 
secular  the  life  about  the  great  cathedral  of 
Milan,  for  example  I  Life  flows  past  this 
wonderful  structure  as  if  there  were  nothing 
beautiful  or  impressive  in  the  whole  world. 
The  great  building  with  its  marvellous  decora- 
tions and  rich  artistic  effects  speaks  a  wonder- 
ful language  to  the  cultured  tourist  but  is 
dumb  to  the  poor  citizen  who  lives  in  its 
shadow.  If  the  bronze  doors  of  the  baptistry 
of  Florence,  which  Michael  Angelo  declared 
worthy  to  be  the  gates  of  Paradise,  even  so 
much  as  suggest  the  existence  of  a  paradise 


148  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

to  the  crowds  that  brush  past  it,  there  is  no 
evidence  of  the  impression  in  their  conduct. 
If  noble  architecture  had  possessed  any  large 
power  of  uplift  Greece  would  have  been  the 
moral  mentor  and  guide  of  mankind  instead 
of  their  moral  undoing  as  she  really  was.  If 
art  were  capable  of  doing  much  for  the  uplift 
of  mankind  the  artists  would  naturally  be 
striking  examples  of  noble  living,  but  this  has 
not  been  the  case. 

The  fact  is,  the  message  of  art  and  architec- 
ture is  not  easily  perceived  and  appropriated 
by  the  average  man.  The  cultured  historian 
and  antiquary  will  linger  about  the  great 
cathedrals,  tracing  their  history  as  seen  in 
their  construction  with  kindling  interest,  en- 
thralled with  the  glories  of  soaring  column 
and  vaulted  roof,  the  long  vistas  of  nave  and 
aisle,  the  far  beauties  of  the  exalted  dome,  the 
mysteries  of  the  great  altar,  the  splendours  of 
window  and  organ ;  he  will  bow  in  solemn 
reverence  before  the  varied  symbolism,  the 
placid  beauty  and  deep  significance  of  the 
whole.  In  it  all  God  speaks  and  he  hears. 
So  it  is  in  less  degree  in  the  beautiful  parish 
churches  of  the  older  Christian  countries. 
But  the  common  man  is  not  so  moved  by 
these  things.  It  is  only  the  unusual  man 
who  has  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear  the 


CHRISTIAN  ARCHITECTURE        149 

voice  of  God  in  the  glories  of  church  architec- 
ture. To  be  effective  it  requires  a  cultivated 
interpreter.  Stone  and  mortar,  paint  and 
mosaic,  do  not  speak  with  the  same  clearness 
and  insistence  as  the  human  voice  or  the 
printed  page.  We  may  not  expect,  then,  any 
great  moral  and  spiritual  service  to  be  ren- 
dered the  common  man  by  the  most  impress- 
ive architecture.  It  is  too  high,  he  cannot 
attain  unto  it.  The  human  personality  and 
voice  are  indispensable  to  the  implanting  of 
Christian  truth  and  the  building  of  Christian 
character  in  him,  and  chief  emphasis  in 
Protestant  churches  must  be  put  on  facilities 
for  preaching  and  instruction.  The  sense  of 
sacredness  and  reverence  which  a  Catholic 
feels  is  impossible  and  undesirable  in  a 
Protestant.  God  is  not  present  in  the  church 
in  such  special  and  peculiar  way  as  to  create 
a  feeling  of  awful  fear  and  reverence  for  this 
place.  God  is  equally  present  everywhere. 
**  Not  in  this  mountain  nor  at  Jerusalem,  but 
in  spirit  and  truth." 

And  yet  noble  architecture  has  in  itself  the 
power  of  great  blessing  to  many,  and  these 
the  most  cultured.  It  cannot  be  disregarded. 
The  church  is  a  distinctive  building  for  a 
distinctive  purpose,  and  its  construction  should 
not  only  afford  room  and  facilities  for  the  ac- 


150  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

complishment  of  the  ends  in  view,  but  the 
architecture  should  contribute  all  that  can  be 
effected  in  this  way  for  the  same  ends.  *'  My 
house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer." 
Whatever  architecture  can  do  to  aid  and  as- 
sist in  this  worshipful  spirit  ought  to  be  done. 

Is  it  not  possible  to  combine  the  two 
ideals  of  Christian  architecture  ?  Can  it  not 
be  the  "  people's  house  "  and  "  God's  house" 
at  the  same  time  ?  Can  it  ever  be  truly  the 
people's  house  without  at  the  same  time  being 
God's  house,  and  vice  versa  ?  The  feet  of  the 
people,  present  for  their  own  highest  welfare, 
can  never  profane  a  house  of  God.  Nothing 
in  this  world  is  too  sacred  and  holy  to  be 
used  for  their  good.  It  was  for  them  that 
Christ  died,  and  no  building  can  be  dedicated 
to  Him  without  at  the  same  time  being 
dedicated  to  them.  But  it  is  not  necessary 
that  a  church  building  should  resemble  a 
barn  or  be  treated  as  one  in  order  to  be  of 
use  to  the  people.  A  good  warehouse  is  an 
excellent  institution  for  its  purposes  in  a  com- 
munity, but  a  church  is  not  designed  to  meet 
the  same  needs  as  a  warehouse,  and  should, 
therefore,  be  different  from  one. 

The  problem  before  the  Christian  architect 
of  to-day  is  to  produce  a  church  that  shall 
afford    ample    accommodations  for  all  the 


CHRISTIAN  ARCHITEC5TURE        151 

varied  activities  of  modern  church  life,  and 
at  the  same  time  preserve  unity  and  harmony 
throughout  the  whole,  and  throw  over  all 
departments  the  atmosphere  of  worship.  Let 
him  remember  first  of  all,  above  all  and  al- 
ways, that  a  church  is  erected  by  and  for  the 
people,  that  the  sole  reason  for  its  existence 
is  the  service  and  welfare  of  men.  But  he 
must  also  remember  that  it  has  its  own 
peculiar  mission  to  the  community.  It  is  not 
a  barn  nor  a  blacksmith  shop.  It  stands 
primarily  to  serve  spiritual  interests,  to  fight 
sin  and  the  destructive  forces  that  infest  and 
infect  modern  society,  to  build  up  the  life  of 
the  individual  and  the  community,  to  woo 
and  win  men  to  faith  in  God  and  righteous 
living.  In  this  task  a  worthy  building,  sub- 
stantial and  beautiful,  genuine  at  every  point, 
suggestive  as  a  whole  (and  in  its  details)  of 
the  reality  and  importance  of  the  spiritual, 
the  presence  of  the  divine,  the  victory  of  faith 
and  hope,  the  joy  of  religious  service  will 
be  a  most  valuable  asset.  These  qualities 
should  be  incorporated  without  sacrificing 
any  of  the  utilitarian  value  of  the  house  on 
the  one  side  or  creating  a  sense  of  the  myste- 
rious sacrednes  of  the  house  on  the  other. 

It  is  important  that  all  the  activities  of  the 
church  should  be  carried  on  under  the  same 


152  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

roof  in  the  same  building.  A  separate  build- 
ing for  any  part  of  the  church's  work  tends  to 
break  up  the  unity  of  the  whole  and  secularize 
that  portion  which  is  separated  from  the  place 
of  worship.  There  is  not  wanting  a  disposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  adult  Sunday-school  classes, 
young  people's  societies  and  some  other 
organizations  to  become  detached  from  the 
church.  This  tendency  explains  in  part,  no 
doubt,  the  decreasing  attendance  in  American 
churches  in  recent  years.  It  is  undoubtedly 
strengthened  by  breaking  up  the  various  ac- 
tivities of  the  church,  and  carrying  them  into 
different  rooms  or  even  separate  buildings ; 
for  it  is  much  easier  to  slip  away  from  such  a 
room  than  from  the  church  auditorium.  By  all 
means  have  everything  under  the  same  roof. 
But  more  than  this,  the  entire  building 
should  be  a  unit,  harmonious  in  design  and 
execution.  Whatever  architecture  can  do  in 
aid  of  worship  ought  to  be  done  in  all  parts 
of  the  building.  The  spirit  of  worship  ought 
to  pervade  the  Sunday-school  department,  the 
recreation  and  amusement  rooms  equally  with 
the  church.  They  are  just  as  sacred  as  the 
spot  from  which  the  sermon  is  delivered. 
Basket-ball,  if  played  in  a  church,  should  be 
played  in  the  consciousness  of  a  pure  religious 
atmosphere.     Too  often  the  architect  creates 


CHEISTIAN  AECHITECTURE        153 

a  worshipful  auditorium,  while  the  other 
portions  of  the  building  have  no  more  sug- 
gestions of  religion  than  an  ordinary  school- 
room or  gymnasium.  The  child  thus  loses 
in  his  tenderest  and  most  impressionable 
years  while  frequently  in  Sunday-school  but 
rarely  in  the  auditorium,  all  the  blessings 
of  worshipful  surroundings.  It  is  not  any 
occasion  of  wonder  if  he  shows  no  attach- 
ment to  the  place  of  worship  when  he  grows 
to  maturity.  His  religious  training  has 
lacked  the  element  of  worship  all  along,  and 
he  is  slow  to  pick  it  up. 

Christian  architects  should  address  them- 
selves seriously  to  the  problem  of  creating  an 
architecture  suitable  to  the  needs  that  have 
been  called  into  being  by  the  religious  devel- 
opments of  the  last  fifty  years.  Heretofore 
we  have  had  a  church  with  other  institutions 
around  it ;  we  need  a  church  with  all  the 
institutions  and  activities  within  it  and  bathed 
in  its  atmosphere.  It  can  be  done  and  it 
ought  to  be  done.  The  matter  is  important. 
The  church  building  is  for  the  service  of  men, 
and  the  creation  of  a  worshipful  atmosphere 
and  spirit  in  all  departments  of  religious 
work,  unifying  the  whole  under  this  gracious 
and  blessed  influence,  is  one  of  the  greatest 
services  that  the  building  can  possibly  render 


154  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

the  community.  Let  us  have  buildings  fitted 
to  satisfy  the  varied  needs  of  the  church 
to-day,  but  let  all  departments  be  under  the 
unifying  spirit  of  worship. 

Much  that  has  been  said  of  architecture  is 
equally  true  of  Christian  painting  and  sculp- 
ture. The  medieval  church  made  much  of 
Christian  art ;  all  the  great  churches  and 
many  of  the  smaller  ones  were  beautified  and 
adorned  by  rich  treasures  of  art.  But  the 
productions  of  Christian  art,  as  is  well  known, 
were  not  used  simply  for  purposes  of  adorn- 
ment and  instruction,  nor  alone  as  aids  to 
worship  and  the  inspiration  of  religious  sen- 
timents ;  theoretically  they  were  used  as  ob- 
jects of  adoration  and  in  actual  practice  they 
were  doubtless  really  worshipped  by  many, 
thus  becoming  objects  of  a  new  idolatry. 
Very  many  of  the  most  prized  treasures  of 
Christian  art  were  once  in  use  as  altar  pieces. 
This  abuse  of  art,  together  with  the  vener- 
ation of  the  saints  who  so  frequently  ap- 
peared in  art,  caused  the  Protestants,  and 
especially  the  Calvinists,  to  react  violently 
against  their  use  in  worship  and  even  their 
presence  in  the  churches.  Storms  of  icono- 
clasm  broke  out  on  occasions  when  all  such 
objects  were  forcibly  removed  from  the 
churches  and  destroyed  ;  stained  glass  win- 


CHRISTIAN  AECHITECTURE        155 

dows  of  priceless  value  were  shattered,  and 
pictures  on  the  interior  walls  were  painted 
out.  Empty  niches  on  the  exterior  walls  tell 
of  the  destruction  of  the  statuary  which  once 
adorned  the  outside  of  the  great  cathedrals. 
To  the  Reformers  who  were  just  emerging 
from  the  Roman  Church  these  objects  were 
the  paraphernalia  of  idolatrous  worship,  and, 
therefore,  to  be  destroyed  with  a  ruthless 
hand.  They  themselves  had  been  Roman- 
ists, and  must  have  known  how  they  were 
used  ;  their  own  experience  with  these  objects 
is  the  justification  for  their  violent  opposition 
to  them  and  lawless  destruction  of  them. 

But  we  are  now  far  enough  away  from  the 
dangers  of  Catholicism  and  idolatry  to  per- 
mit even  the  descendants  of  the  Calvinists  to 
begin  a  tentative  employment  of  Christian 
art  again  in  the  churches.  Nearly  all  de- 
nominations have  finally  admitted  the  organ  ; 
and  the  stained  glass  window,  even  containing 
figures  of  men  who  are  Catholic  saints,  is 
found  in  very  many  Protestant  churches. 
Pictures  are  employed  for  pedagogical  pur- 
poses in  the  Sunday-school.  But  there  Chris- 
tian art  stops  in  most  Protestant  churches. 
Here  and  there  churches  go  further  and  at- 
tempt to  assist  the  worshipper  by  the  use  of 
art.     A    worthy    painting   of   Jesus   is   now 


156  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

sometimes  seen  over  the  pulpit  or  the  bap- 
tistry, such  a  painting  as  might  really  assist 
the  heart  in  rising  to  God.  But  it  is  probable 
that  Catholic  misuse  of  Christian  art  will  long 
prevent  Protestants  from  employing  it  even  in 
legitimate  and  helpful  ways.  We  largely  judge 
the  value  of  things  from  our  former  prejudices 
rather  than  from  their  intrinsic  worth. 

In  some  respects  Protestantism  can  never 
foster  Christian  art  as  Catholicism  has  done. 
Protestants  have  not  the  same  traditions  of 
art  behind  them  to  stimulate  effort,  nor  do 
they  live  so  much  in  the  past  as  the  Catholics 
do.  Saints  and  martyrs  mean  far  less  to 
Protestants  than  to  Catholics.  Modern  his- 
torical investigation  and  criticism  have  ex- 
ploded and  dissipated  the  legends  and  con- 
ventional subjects  which  form  so  large  a  part 
of  the  material  utilized  by  the  medieval  and 
Renaissance  painters.  The  less  materialistic 
and  more  spiritual  religious  views  of  Protes- 
tantism restrain  its  painters  from  attempting 
themes  that  were  freely  handled  by  the 
Catholics.  But  it  is  probable  that  Protestant 
painting  will  gain  in  reality  and  in  influence 
on  the  daily  life  of  the  present  more  than  it 
loses  in  the  compass  of  its  material.  In  re- 
cent years  Protestantism  has  surpassed 
Catholicism  in  religious  painting — in  depth, 


CHRISTIAN  ARCHITECTURE        157 

reality,  compass  and  spirituality.  Some  time 
this  art  may  be  made  richly  helpful  to  the 
spiritual  life  of  Protestants  without  any  of 
the  objectionable  features  of  the  past,  as  it  is 
already  a  means  of  attractive  adornment. 

Both  as  to  art  and  architecture  the  minis- 
ter must  remember  that  he  cannot  consult 
his  own  tastes,  nor  follow  the  standards 
which  his  culture  and  training  would  warrant 
in  his  case.  He  must  take  conditions  as  they 
are,  and  pursue  that  policy  which  will  be 
best  for  his  congregatiouo  There  may  be 
strong  though  groundless  prejudice  against 
stained  glass  windows  or  the  use  of  human 
figures  either  in  the  windows  or  on  the  walls. 
This  feeling  may  appear  to  him  very  foolish, 
but  as  the  shepherd  of  souls  he  cannot  fail  to 
consult  the  interests  of  his  flock  rather  than 
his  own  tastes.  His  ministry  is  to  life  and 
of  that  he  must  think  constantly.  Art  and 
architecture  must  be  made  to  serve  life,  the 
life  of  the  people  that  attend  that  particular 
church.  Anything  that  would  hinder  that 
supreme  goal  must  be  discarded,  everything 
that  can  be  done  to  assist  in  this  task  through 
the  construction  and  adornment  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  the  work  is  to  be  accomplished 
should  surely  be  done.  Life  here  as  every- 
where else  is  the  supreme  consideration. 


VIII 

THE   MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE 

BIBLICAL  criticism  has  put  a  very  con- 
siderable strain  on  the  modern  Chris- 
tian world.  The  consciousness  of  dif- 
ficulties in  the  Bible  is  nothing  new.  The 
early  Christian  fathers  discovered  many  such 
difficulties  in  their  own  studies  or  had  them 
thrust  upon  their  attention  by  the  assaults  of 
their  opponents.  These  difficulties  were  met 
in  various  ways  more  or  less  convincing,  but 
never  entirely  satisfactory  and  never  final 
During  the  Middle  Ages  the  critical  spirit 
was  dormant;  the  authority  of  the  Church 
was  final  for  scholar  as  well  as  layman.  The 
Bible,  known  almost  exclusively  to  scholars, 
was  accepted  as  far  as  it  was  used  at  all  with- 
out question  as  the  Church  interpreted  it. 
Most  of  the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury took  the  same  attitude  as  to  the  author- 
ity and  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures,  and  even 
strengthened  it  by  setting  an  infallible  Bible 
over  against  the  Catholic  Church  which  they 
had  repudiated  and  were  leaving.  Such  an 
158 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     159 

attitude  was  almost  inevitable,  for  they  were 
fighting  a  church  that  claimed  to  be  infallible 
and  they  naturally  felt  need  of  the  support  of 
something  with  an  equal  authority.  The 
inerrancy  ascribed  to  the  Bible  extended  to 
every  detail  of  composition  and  content. 
These  sentiments  with  regard  to  the  Scrip- 
tures continued  through  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, the  age  of  dogmatic  Protestant  ortho- 
doxy. 

With  the  rehabilitation  of  the  critical  spirit 
in  the  eighteenth  century  the  historic  Protes- 
tant views  of  the  Bible  and  Christian  doctrine 
were  again  challenged.  This  attack  on  what 
was  believed  to  be  the  fundamental  position 
of  Protestantism  came  from  the  children  of  its 
own  bosom,  and  at  first  was  sternly  frowned 
upon.  It,  however,  increased  in  volume  and 
power  throughout  most  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  has  at  length  mastered  most  of  the 
Protestant  scholarship  of  the  world.  Con- 
fined for  a  long  time  to  the  learned  some  of 
these  views  have  at  length  filtered  down  into 
the  mass  of  Christian  people  until  one  finds 
in  Sunday-school  literature  statements  that 
would  have  horrified  adult  Christians  a  cen- 
tury ago.  While  acceptance  of  the  critical 
attitude  is  true  of  many  Christians,  at  the 
same  time  many  pious  people  hold  back  and 


160  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

anathematize  these  so-called  '*  advanced " 
viewSo  This  variance  and  antagonism  exist- 
ing between  different  sections  of  the  Chris- 
tian community  puts  a  great  strain  on  Chris- 
tian fellowship.  Throughout  the  Christian 
world  the  bonds  of  fraternal  feeling  and  co- 
operation are  more  or  less  weakened  by  this 
want  of  harmony  with  regard  to  the  origin, 
interpretation  and  authority  of  the  Bible. 
Heresy  trials  on  this  subject  are  probably  not 
wholly  behind  us. 

There  is  then  both  hearty  agreement  and 
sharp  disagreements  with  regard  to  the 
Bible.  By  the  almost  unanimous  consent  of 
Christian  scholars  and  the  testimony  of  Chris- 
tian experience  the  Bible  is  in  some  sense  a 
unique  revelation  from  God.  Opinions  differ 
widely  as  to  the  date,  authorship  and  com- 
position of  some  of  its  books ;  they  do  not 
entirely  agree  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of 
its  authority,  nor  as  to  the  measure  and  man- 
ner in  which  it  is  inspired,  nor  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  revelation  that  appears  in  its 
pages ;  they  vary  widely  as  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  individual  passages  and  as  to  its 
teachings  as  a  whole  on  certain  subjects. 
But  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Calvinist  and 
Arminian,  liberal  and  conservative,  maintain 
the  uniqueness  of  this  Book.     In  its  pages 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     161 

they  find  God  as  nowhere  else.  The  simple 
believer  and  the  erudite  scholar  draw  from  its 
pages  comfort  in  sorrow,  light  in  the  shadow 
of  doubt,  hope  when  despair  threatens  to 
overwhelm,  strength  in  hours  of  temptation 
and  weakness.  By  common  consent  the  con- 
ception of  God  found  here  is  the  most  satis- 
fying and  stimulating  known  to  man.  The 
Psalms  express  our  present-day  religious  ex- 
periences better  than  we  can  do  in  our  own 
language.  The  Bible  reader  is  conscious  of 
a  continuous  enrichment  of  his  life  from  the 
springs  of  its  instruction  and  inspiration.  If 
God  is  not  the  God  found  in  the  Bible  then 
He  is  indeed  the  great  unknown,  and  if  He 
could  be  known  He  would  probably  have 
little  value  for  our  lives.  Of  course  it  is  in 
the  Bible  and  there  only  that  we  come  to 
know  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  the 
highest  and  completest  manifestation  of  God 
we  can  ever  have.  Whatever  treasures  exist 
in  Him  we  mine  from  the  Bible  alone. 

About  thus  much  Christian  scholars  of  all 
schools  are  practically  agreed.  But  along 
with  this  conviction  of  the  unique  value  of  the 
Bible  many  scholars  admit  mistakes  in  detail, 
due  to  the  fact  that  revelation  has  been  pro- 
gressive, that  the  agents  of  revelation  were 
imperfect  in  character  and  knowledge,  to  the 


162  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

exigencies  of  transmission  through  centuries 
of  copying,  and  to  other  causes.  But  their 
faith  in  God  and  in  Christ  as  the  Redeemer 
is,  they  insist,  in  no  way  affected  by  these 
minor  defects.  They  look  at  the  Book  as  a 
whole,  in  the  large,  and,  seen  in  perspective, 
it  is  in  a  unique  and  authoritative  sense  the 
Book  of  God.  They  use  it  in  the  support 
and  cultivation  of  their  own  spiritual  life  as 
diligently  and  as  lovingly  as  any.  Their  faith 
does  not  depend  en  belief  in  its  absolute  in- 
errancy in  every  detail ;  minor  discrepancies 
do  not  shock  or  shake  their  faith. 

On  the  other  hand  a  great  part  of  the 
Protestant  people  have  so  long  regarded  the 
Bible  as  absolutely  infallible  in  every  partic- 
ular that  the  first  suggestion  of  even  the 
smallest  error  shocks  their  faith  ;  indeed  their 
Christian  hope  seems  to  be  dependent  upon 
the  maintenance  of  the  complete  accuracy  of 
the  Bible  in  every  particular.  Recession 
from  this  position  undoubtedly  seems  to 
threaten  the  stability  of  their  faith. 

What  is  the  preacher's  duty  under  these 
trying  circumstances  ?  For  they  are  trying  to 
the  preacher,  bent  upon  the  accomplishment 
of  practical  tasks,  regardless  of  his  own  con- 
victions in  the  premises.  Shall  he  ally  him- 
self with  the  conservatives  or  with  the  liberals, 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     1G3 

with  the  orthodox  or  the  heretics  ?  Or  ought 
he  to  remain  neutral,  either  through  igno- 
rance of  the  questions  at  issue  or  indifference 
to  the  results  of  the  controversy,  or  fear  for  his 
own  ecclesiastical  standing  ?  There  can  be  no 
question  that  his  position  judged  from  a  purely 
practical  standpoint  is  often  perplexing. 

But  certain  facts  and  principles  necessary 
to  his  guidance  seem  to  be  reasonably  clear, 
in  view  of  his  practical  and  vital  aims.  He 
needs  to  keep  it  clear  in  his  consciousness 
that  his  duties  are  practical  and  constructive 
rather  than  literary  and  critical.  They  are 
vital,  having  to  do  with  men  rather  than  with 
literature.  The  Bible  is  one  of  his  implements, 
not  his  field  of  labour.  There  is  a  place  for 
the  Biblical  scholar  who  makes  the  Bible  his 
field  of  endeavour,  but  the  preacher  has 
chosen  the  world  of  mankind  as  his  field.  In 
its  cultivation  he  ought  to  be  an  expert,  an 
authority,  a  distinction  to  which  he  can  never 
attain  in  the  field  of  criticism  while  he  con- 
tinues his  work  as  a  minister.  As  a  practical 
man  he  has  the  right,  he  may  regard  it  as  a 
duty  incumbent  upon  him,  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  the  results  of  the  work  done  by  other 
men  in  the  critical  field.  But  he  does  it  as  a 
practical  man  using  the  resources  of  common 
sense    and    general    rather    than    technical 


164  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

knowledge.  Often  conclusions  of  the  scientist 
in  this  and  other  departments  of  investigation 
need  just  this  check  of  common  sense,  and  the 
preacher  need  feel  no  hesitation  in  applying 
this  test. 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  he 
must  jealously  guard  his  mental  independence 
and  honesty.  He  must  never  allow  fear  or 
any  other  motive  of  personal  interest  to  deflect 
him  for  a  moment  from  the  path  of  absolute 
sincerity.  To  play  hide-and-seek  with  the 
truth  is  to  condemn  oneself  to  mental  barren- 
ness and  spiritual  decay.  Even  if  loyalty  to 
honest  and  hard-earned  convictions  puts  him 
into  disharmony  with  his  church,  let  it  come ; 
when  the  variance  reaches  such  a  pitch  that 
they  can  no  longer  do  the  Lord's  work  to- 
gether let  him  relieve  the  tension  by  handing 
in  his  resignation,  not  by  repudiating  his 
sincere  and  honest  convictions.  Proper  self- 
respect  and  due  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
men  render  this  course  unavoidable. 

He  must  frankly  recognize  y^^^^,  no  matter 
what  they  are  or  by  whom  they  were  dis- 
covered and  revealed  to  the  world.  They 
may  contradict  his  own  former  beliefs  and 
threaten  to  overthrow  the  faith  of  some  ;  but 
if  "after  honest  investigation  they  are  facts  to 
him  they  must  be  accepted.     A  fact  is  a  fact 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     165 

and  sooner  or  later  it  will  be  recognized  as 
such  by  rational  and  thoughtful  men.  More- 
over the  minister  ought  to  rest  secure  in  the 
conviction  that  no  fact  or  truth  can  long  en- 
danger faith  ;  faith  is  so  vital  that  it  quickly 
adapts  itself  to  the  advancing  knowledge  that 
comes  through  discovery  in  every  field  of 
learning,  Biblical  and  literary  as  well  as  scien- 
tific and  philosophical.  The  fact  that  the 
period  of  greatest  scientific  progress  and 
most  rabid  Biblical  criticism  has  also  been  the 
period  of  most  rapid  Christian  expansion 
should  provoke  optimistic  reflections.  Cer- 
tainly no  minister  is  called  upon  to  close  his 
mind  to  facts,  much  less  deny  them,  in  the  in- 
terest of  established  beliefs.  Indeed  he  dare 
not  do  so.  Such  a  course  of  action  would 
richly  deserve  the  contempt  which  it  would 
surely  invite. 

Only  let  him  be  sure  that  alleged  facts  are 
really  such,  at  least  determined  by  him  to  be 
so  after  the  application  of  all  available  tests. 
Acceptance  of  facts  is  not  equivalent  to  the 
passive  gulping  of  all  that  is  handed  out  by 
some  scholar  or  school  whose  fame  happens 
for  the  moment  to  be  in  the  ascendant.  It 
presupposes  the  vigorous  exercise  of  one's 
own  common  sense  in  a  critical  estimate  of 
what  is  offered.     There  are  fashions  in  opinion 


166  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

as  well  as  dress.  A  position  need  not  con- 
tinue to  be  held  because  it  is  old  or  be  ac- 
cepted because  it  is  new.  The  preacher  is 
interested  in  its  truth  and  reality,  not  in  its  age 
or  antecedents.  We  need  such  a  profound 
confidence  in  facts,  their  stability  and  service- 
ableness,  as  to  inspire  us  to  toil  for  them  with 
consuming  zeal.  Such  an  attitude  will  de- 
mand courage  of  a  high  order  ;  but  with  con- 
fidence in  facts  a  man  can  walk  firmly  and 
steadily  where  the  steps  of  others  may  falter 
and  fail.  In  places  and  at  times  it  will  re- 
quire as  much  courage  to  walk  in  the  old 
paths  and  be  cried  out  as  orthodox  as  at  other 
times  and  places  will  be  necessary  in  accept- 
ing something  new  which  may  involve  the 
charge  of  heresy.  And  this  statement  applies 
to  all  departments  of  Christian  thought 
equally  as  much  as  to  the  various  views  of 
the  Bible.  But  in  the  face  of  all  difficulties 
and  the  pain  which  it  may  cost  him  the  minis- 
ter must  still  search  for  facts  and  accept  noth- 
ing but  what  he  regards  as  facts.  In  the  end 
he  will  find  that  facts  have  the  highest  value  for 
the  life  of  men,  and  his  function  in  the  world 
is  the  service  of  the  life  of  men. 

In  the  third  place  the  minister  should  re- 
member that  most  of  the  questions  handled 
and  most  of  the  conclusions  reached  by  Bib- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     167 

lical  criticism  are  only  remotely  related  to 
the  life  of  men.  They  are  not,  therefore, 
proper  themes  for  pulpit  treatment.  How- 
ever interesting  they  may  be  to  the  scholar 
they  are  inexpressibly  dreary,  abstruse  and 
petty  to  the  common  man.  They  are  the 
mere  husks  of  truth  at  the  best,  and  men 
want  the  kernels.  Whatever  in  them  is 
true  will  gradually  and  naturally  filter  into 
the  lives  of  men  without  the  inevitable  shock 
which  must  come  with  direct  treatment. 
What  men  need  to  learn  from  the  Bible  and 
the  pulpit  is  to  know  and  serve  God,  not 
when  or  how  or  by  whom  the  Pentateuch  or 
Isaiah  was  composed.  To  know  infallibly 
the  solution  of  every  question  that  has  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  Biblical  critics  for  a 
hundred  years  would  contribute  nothing  to 
the  spiritual  life  of  a  single  man.  The  pastor 
who  is  continually  hammering  on  Biblical 
criticism  is  wasting  and  worse  than  wasting 
his  time,  for  he  may  be  weakening  and  unset- 
tling the  faith  of  some  whom  he  was  called 
of  God  to  strengthen  and  establish.  The 
date  and  composition  of  the  Homeric  poems 
in  no  way  affects  the  beauty  and  sublimity 
of  the  Iliad  or  the  Odyssey  ;  the  question  of 
the  authorship  of  Macbeth  or  Hamlet,  how- 
ever decided,  can  neither  enhance  nor  dimin- 


168  A  VITAL  MIOTSTEY 

ish  the  value  of  the  contents  of  these  master- 
pieces. In  like  manner  the  minister  should 
remember  that  it  is  not  a  knowledge  of  the 
authorship,  date  and  composition  of  the  Bib- 
lical books  that  can  help  men,  but  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  God  who  shines  out  from  the 
pages  of  that  Book.  The  Bible  is  not  an 
end  but  a  means ;  the  saving  knowledge  of 
God  is  the  end  and  the  Bible  is  the  means  to 
that  holy  end.  Knowledge  of  the  Bible  has 
little  importance  except  as  it  aids  to  the 
knowledge  of  God.  Apart  from  its  relation 
to  God  Israel's  history  is  only  the  story  of 
one  of  the  smaller  and  less  important  seg- 
ments of  humanity  and  Israel's  literature 
merely  a  fragment  of  the  world's  great  out- 
put. It  is  God's  presence  in  the  nation  that 
gives  it  significance.  The  preacher  would 
do  as  well  to  descant  upon  Greek  or  Roman 
history  and  literature  as  upon  that  of  Israel 
unless  he  sees  God  in  the  latter.  The  dis- 
cussion of  the  composition  of  the  Homeric 
poems  is  just  as  edifying  as  the  question  of 
two  or  more  Isaiahs.  The  point  insisted 
upon  is  the  worthlessness  of  all  such  dis- 
quisitions for  the  specific  purposes  of  the 
preacher.  It  is  not  some  theory  of  the 
Bible's  composition  or  inspiration  that  is 
valuable,  but  the  Bible  itselt 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  BIBLE     169 

Let  the  preacher  take  the  Bible  as  he  finds 
it  and  use  it  for  the  supreme  purposes  of  the 
ministry.  The  average  man  does  not  trouble 
himself  and  will  not  sufEer  the  preacher  to 
trouble  him  about  abstruse  and  technical 
questions  concerning  the  Bible ;  it  is  the 
meat,  the  ethical  and  spiritual  content  of  the 
Book,  which  he  wants.  Unconsciously  and 
unerringly,  if  left  to  himself,  he  chooses  and 
uses  those  portions  of  the  Word  which  are 
replete  with  religious  fatness.  He  does  not 
argue  that  the  Psalms  and  the  Gospel  of 
John  are  more  inspired  than  Chronicles  or 
Esther.  The  question  of  the  relative  inspi- 
ration of  the  various  parts  of  the  Bible  has 
never  risen  to  plague  him ;  but  the  former 
books  he  uses,  the  latter  he  leaves  by  the 
side.  In  proportion  as  the  preacher  is  inter- 
ested in  the  life  of  the  men  of  to-day  he  will 
seek  to  bring  to  them  that  message  which  is 
fraught  with  the  richest  blessings.  Out  of 
the  Bible  he  will  bring  to  his  parishioners  the 
contents  of  our  religion ;  his  message  will  be 
a  religious  and  ethical  one.  In  the  Bible  he 
will  find  both  for  himself  and  others  such 
treasures  as  no  other  book  affords,  such 
knowledge  as  can  be  gathered  from  no  other 
source.  And  this  he  will  do  regardless  of 
any  theory  of  the  date   and   authorship   of 


170  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

any  of  its  books.  If  he  will  allow  the  Bible 
to  speak  for  itself  to  his  heart  and  head 
it  will  tell  him  of  God  and  give  him  the 
wisdom  and  power  necessary  to  bring  others 
to  that  knowledge.  This  statement  is  justi- 
fied not  only  in  the  experience  of  the  indi- 
vidual but  also  on  the  broader  arena  of 
Christian  history  as  a  whole.  Those  men 
who  have  been  most  diligent  and  faithful  in 
the  study  and  preaching  of  the  Bible  have 
been  most  successful  as  ministers  and  Chris- 
tian workers  ;  likewise  those  periods  in  Chris- 
tian history  in  which  the  Bible  has  been 
most  widely  circulated  and  generally  studied 
have  also  shown  most  evangelical  zeal  and 
renewing  power.  It  was  Wesley's  proclama- 
tion of  the  message  of  the  Bible  which  regen- 
erated England  in  the  last  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  cold,  contemptu- 
ous intellectualism  of  the  eighteenth  century 
melted  and  disappeared  in  the  warm  gulf 
stream  of  vital  Scriptural  preaching.  The 
Bible  is  here  to  be  used. 


IX 

THE  MINISTER  AND  HIS  CHURCH 

ONE  of  the  most  perplexing  problems 
that  confronts  the  young  minister  of 
to-day  in  America  is  that  of  the  re- 
lation of  himself  and  his  church  to  other 
churches  and  denominations.  American 
Christianity  is  splintered  into  fragments  as 
that  of  no  other  country.  Many  of  the  de- 
nominations came  to  these  shores  in  the 
early  settlement  of  the  country  bringing  from 
their  European  homes  the  bitterness  of  years 
of  strife.  Others  have  sprung  up  here,  but 
amid  the  hardship  and  turmoil  of  struggles 
that  have  left  deep  clefts  behind.  Denomi- 
national competition  has  brought  its  blessings 
no  doubt,  but  the  gains  have  been  accom- 
panied by  terrible  losses  in  friction  and  con- 
troversy. These  and  other  circumstances 
have  conspired  to  make  the  religious  life  of 
America  very  strictly  denominational.  Even 
where  little  unfriendly  feeling  has  existed,  the 
lines  of  separation,  not  only  in  beliefs  and 
practices  but  also  in  those  tasks  of  human 
service  that  should  be  common  to  all  Chris- 
171 


172  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

tians,  have  been  very  clearly  drawn.  Men 
would  work  together  in  business  and  pleas- 
ure, but  in  the  tasks  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
they  held  sharply  apart.  These  conditions 
obtained  more  or  less  widely  down  to  the 
generation  that  preceded  ours. 

At  present  these  conditions  are  changing. 
There  is  friendlier  feeling  between  the  various 
religious  bodies,  and  many  noble  Christian 
men  and  women  have  begun  to  look  with 
some  hopefulness  for  the  ultimate  union  of 
divided  Protestantism,  if  not  of  all  Christen- 
dom. Ours  is  apparently  an  age  of  transition, 
always  a  difficult  time  for  the  conscientious 
Christian  man.  This  change  of  sentiment  is 
due  to  many  causes — the  world-wide  longing 
for  peace  in  every  sphere  of  life,  the  growing 
sense  of  the  overwhelming  size  and  difficulty 
of  the  Christian  task  at  home  and  abroad  as 
the  knowledge  of  a  world's  need  presses  in 
upon  us,  the  movement  for  the  conservation 
of  resources  and  the  elimination  of  waste  in 
religion  as  in  other  spheres  of  labour,  the  ex- 
altation of  the  practical  over  the  theoretical 
and  the  decline  of  interest  in  theological  spec- 
ulations and  divisions,  the  dawning  con- 
sciousness of  the  essential  unity  of  all  true 
Christians  in  the  great  spiritual  realities  and 
tasks,  and  others.     Whatever  the  causes  of 


THE  MINISTEE  AND  HIS  CHURCH     173 

the  change  the  fact  of  the  change  brings  more 
or  less  embarrassment  and  strain  to  many 
ministers. 

On  the  one  hand  the  past  draws  fast  about 
the  minister  the  lines  of  denominationalism. 
The  shibboleths  of  controversy  die  slowly  and 
painfully.  Long  after  they  have  ceased  to 
represent  realities  they  linger  to  vex  and  to 
retard  progress.  Moreover  the  older  breth- 
ren who  may  have  waded  through  the  bitter- 
ness of  controversies  are  likely  to  be  unable 
to  escape  the  blight  in  later  years.  They 
are  prone  to  stand  for  aloofness.  Again 
those  general  workers  whose  duties  lead  them 
to  foster  and  rely  upon  strong  denominational 
support  are  apt  to  look  askance  at  any  rap- 
prochement of  the  denominations,  lest  it 
weaken  denominational  efficiency  and  lame 
their  own  work. 

Less  worthy  motives  are  not  wanting.  All 
the  unsanctified  elements  of  human  nature 
array  themselves  on  the  side  of  denomina- 
tional aloofness — bitterness,  hatred,  the  petty 
ambitions  of  small  men,  the  love  of  conten- 
tion and  glory,  and  other  unworthy  motives. 

Besides  this  pressure  from  without  there 
comes  to  the  young  minister  a  powerful  in- 
ternal plea.  He  is  himself  probably  the 
spiritual   offspring  of  the  denomination  to 


174  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

whose  membership  he  belongs.  He  cherishes, 
and  rightly  so,  a  degree  of  reverence  and 
gratitude  for  this  foster  mother  that  renders 
it  extremely  difficult  for  him  to  do  anything 
that  would  cause  pain  or  even  apparent  in- 
jury. He  believes  in  the  truth  and  rightness 
of  its  doctrines  and  practices  as  in  those  of 
no  other  church  or  denomination.  As  a 
minister  of  the  body  which  gave  him  spiri- 
tual life  and  continues  to  nourish  him  he  owes 
the  loyal  service  which  he  solemnly  vowed 
at  his  ordination  to  give.  Moreover,  his 
standing,  good  name  and  usefulness,  his  very 
living,  are  dependent  on  the  confidence  with 
which  his  own  people  regard  him.  There  is 
no  undenominational,  unorganized  Christian- 
ity in  America  to  give  him  support.  Still 
further  he  recognizes  the  fact  that  organiza- 
tion is  absolutely  necessary  to  any  effective 
work  in  religion,  as  in  other  things  where 
great  tasks  are  to  be  accomplished.  To  be 
without  the  support  of  an  organization  is  for 
all  except  those  who  are  great  enough  to 
create  their  own  organizations,  to  be  shorn 
of  all  possibility  of  doing  anything  worth 
while.  These  and  other  considerations  tend 
to  make  him  a  strict  denominational  man, 
ready  to  fight  the  battles  of  his  church  and 
stand  with  it  against  all  others. 


THE  MINISTEE  ANB  HIS  CHURCH     175 

On  the  other  hand  much  of  the  best  in 
modern  life  tends  to  lead  him  away  from  the 
strict  denominationalism  of  the  old  style.  He 
recognizes  the  fact  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  greater  than  his  or  any  other  church,  and 
he  remembers  that  the  Master  talked  much  of 
the  kingdom  and  little  of  the  church.  He 
looks  at  the  noble  work  other  denominations 
are  doing,  scarcely  inferior  if  not  actually 
superior  to  that  done  by  his  own ;  he  recog- 
nizes the  hand  of  God  working  with  them  and 
asks  himself  why  he  should  not  himself 
cooperate.  He  sees  the  need  of  power  for 
the  great  tasks  of  the  kingdom,  tasks  that  tax 
the  resources  of  the  Christian  world,  and  he 
longs  for  that  efBciency  which  comes  through 
unity.  He  looks  about  him  and  sees  what 
appears  to  be  a  great  loss  of  power  through 
the  reduplication  of  plants  and  forces  and  the 
inevitable  friction  and  heat  which  develop 
where  the  same  work  is  being  attempted  by 
different  Christian  bodies.  He  studies  church 
history  and  learns  that  the  peculiarities  of 
this  and  that  denomination,  his  own  among 
them,  are  due  in  large  measure  to  the  per- 
sonal peculiarities  and  exigencies  of  some 
man  or  men  of  the  sixteenth  or  some  later 
century.  He  traces  the  history  and  develop- 
ment of  his  particular  type  of  theology  only 


176  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

to  discover  a  very  human  continuity  of  strife 
and  struggle  which  severely  shakes  his  confi- 
dence in  its  finality  and  infallibility.  He 
learns  the  faults  and  weaknesses  of  his  own 
church  as  well  as  the  excellences  and  strength 
of  others.  He  sees  how  others  have  blessed 
the  world,  how  men  are  still  strengthened 
and  uplifted  by  them.  All  this  tends  inevi- 
tably to  weaken  the  strenuousness  of  his 
denominational  partisanship.  It  is  compara- 
tively easy  for  an  ignorant  and  provincial 
man  who  knows  nothing  of  other  churches 
beyond  the  petty  squabbles  of  village  religious 
life  to  stand  aloof  and  remain  hostile ;  it  is 
not  so  easy  for  the  man  whose  vision  is  en- 
larged by  study  and  by  an  earnest  effort  for 
the  Christianizing  of  the  whole  world  and  the 
whole  of  life.  All  his  selfish  feelings  and  in- 
terests and  some  of  the  noblest  feelings  of  his 
life  lie  on  the  side  of  denominationalism, 
while  many  of  the  best  aspirations  of  himself 
and  others  weigh  on  the  other  side.  What  is 
he  to  do  under  these  circumstances  ? 

Obviously  it  is  not  strange  that  many  young 
men,  and  older  ones  for  that  matter,  find 
themselves  in  great  embarrassment  at  present. 
When  they  weigh  the  practical  considera- 
tions of  the  immediate  present  they  are  driven 
powerfully  towards  a  vigorous  denomination- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  HIS  CHURCH     177 

alism  ;  when  other  Christian  sentiments  and 
ideals  come  under  review  they  feel  them- 
selves drawn  no  less  strongly  in  the  opposite 
direction.  They  find  those  who  are  leading 
in  the  work  of  their  church  earnestly  em- 
phasizing and  developing  the  distinctive  and 
the  denominational,  while  the  leaders  of 
thought^  whose  personal  interests  would  be 
secure  in  any  event,  inclined  to  harmonious 
cooperation  and  even  union  with  others.  In 
his  own  congregation  the  minister  will  prob- 
ably find  some  who  deprecate  his  denomina- 
tional narrowness  and  others  who  with  equal 
vigour  protest  against  his  undue  liberalism. 
These  conditions  are  not  everywhere  equally 
acute,  but  sense  of  mal-adjustment  and  strain 
is  not  wholly  wanting  in  any  part  of  our 
country.  The  question  must  be  repeated, 
What  is  the  preacher  to  do  ? 

Let  him  recall  the  fact  that  the  task  of  the 
minister  is  preeminently  a  practical  one. 
His  aim  is  ideal,  but  the  material  and  means 
with  which  he  is  to  work  are  far  from  ideal. 
He  must  take  human  nature  as  he  finds  it 
and  do  with  it  what  he  can  to  bring  it  up  as 
far  as  possible  towards  the  Christian  standard 
of  perfection.  His  primary  duty  before  God 
is  the  nurture  of  life  in  men  ;  consequently 
that  course  of  action  which,  tested  in  the  long 


178  A  VITAL  MliJISTEY 

run  and  looked  at  in  the  large,  will  contribute 
most  to  the  life  of  men  will  be  his  line  of 
duty.  Put  in  other  words,  it  is  his  first  duty 
to  consider  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  No  other  considerations  can  possibly 
be  paramount.  This  high  purpose  will  not 
solve  all  his  perplexities,  but  it  will  give  a 
working  principle  of  great  value.  He  must 
remember  that  he  is  not  to  decide  individual 
questions  from  purely  local  and  temporary 
considerations.  The  issues  at  stake  are  not 
temporary.  Compromise  may  seem  to  be  the 
course  dictated  by  Christian  sentiment  and 
common  sense,  and  yet  judged  by  the  light 
of  the  centuries  it  may  prove  to  be  the  high- 
est unwisdom.  It  was  largely  through  the 
door  of  compromise  that  those  beliefs  and 
practices  entered,  which  transformed  the 
primitive  Church  into  the  great  Qatholic 
body.  What  seemed  to  be  the  way  of  pru- 
dence and  progress  proved  to  be  the  broad 
road  that  led  rapidly  towards  destruction.  It 
might  conceivably  be  so  again.  Nothing  of 
permanent  importance  must  be  given  away 
in  the  interest  of  any  supposed  Christian 
unity  and  fraternity.  On  the  other  hand 
mere  partisan  prejudice  must  not  be  allowed 
to  hinder  efficiency  in  the  work  of  the  king- 
dom.    The  question  the  preacher  must  de- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  HIS  CHURCH     179 

cide  is  the  ultimate  effect  of  this  or  that 
course  of  action  on  the  life  of  men. 

Many  denominational  differences  are  un- 
doubtedly without  vital  significance,  the 
troublesome  rubbish  and  debris  of  former 
controversies.  Others  involve  loyalty  to  the 
teachings  of  Scripture  even  as  to  the  very 
essence  of  the  Christian  religion.  Still  others 
involve  important  questions  of  fraternity  and 
expediency  that  cannot  be  ignored.  Serious 
men  will  not  expect  serious  and  conscientious 
men  to  sacrifice  convictions  about  such  mat- 
ters. Some  of  the  talk  in  behalf  of  Christian 
union  is  scarcely  creditable  to  either  the  in- 
telligence or  the  faithfulness  of  its  advocates. 
Some  questions  cut  too  deep  into  the  heart 
of  things,  they  have  too  much  bearing  on  the 
eternal  destiny  and  welfare  of  men  to  be  ar- 
bitrated, blurred  or  compromised. 

It  is,  however,  most  gratifying  that  the 
fuller  emphasis  which  is  constantly  being  put 
on  the  spiritual  side  of  Christianity  is  con- 
stantly diminishing  the  space  that  separates 
the  various  Christian  bodies.  The  spiritual 
elements  of  Christianity  have  never  been  the 
prime  causes  of  division  and  strife.  Differ- 
ences gather  about  the  outward  manifestations 
of  religion  ;  neither  has  there  been  any  great 
difference  among  the  independent  scholars  of 


180  A  VITAL  MIKISTEY 

the  Christian  world  as  to  the  teaching  of 
Scripture  as  to  these  matters  and  the  task  that 
lies  before  the  followers  of  Christ.  Differ- 
ences have  arisen  when  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious additions  have  been  made  to  the  sim- 
plicity of  Christ's  Gospel.  Frequently  these 
have  been  imposed  on  men  not  only  by  the 
power  of  the  Church  but  also  by  that  of  the 
State.  Unfortunately  we  have  not  yet  got- 
ten away  from  the  effects  of  this  attitude  of 
mind.  Multitudes  of  Christian  men  will  not 
permit  the  freedom  with  which  Christ  has 
made  us  free ;  but  as  the  spiritual  becomes 
the  predominant  consideration  this  attitude 
must  weaken  and  gradually  disappear.  In 
the  meantime  the  minister  must  be  loyal  to 
the  truth  and  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ, 
fraternal  with  all  the  followers  of  the  Master, 
ready  to  work  with  every  man  who  is  not 
against  us,  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  on 
the  earth,  thinking  always  first  of  all  of  his  own 
supreme  task  of  building  up  the  life  of  men 
by  bringing  them  to  know  God.  Vital  truth 
cannot  and  will  not  be  sacrificed.  No  earnest 
man  will  expect  another  to  stultify  his  con- 
science by  denying  or  leaving  in  abeyance 
what  he  believes  to  be  important  truth.  Such 
a  course  would  be  disloyalty  to  the  highest 
qualities  of  manhood  with  which   we   have 


THE  MINISTER  AND  HIS  CHURCH    181 

been  endowed,  and  would  inevitably  result  in 
serious  mental  and  spiritual  deterioration. 
Loyalty,  fraternity  and  cooperation  in  the 
service  of  the  life  of  men,  that  must  be  the 
minister's  guide  in  the  midst  of  the  perplex- 
ities and  difficulties  of  his  position  in  Amer- 
ica. If  his  soul  is  sometimes  vexed  and 
restive  because  of  the  hardships  incident  to 
a  divided  Christendom,  let  him  recall  the  fact 
that  periods  of  unity  have  had  their  own  great 
evils  to  endure.  There  has  been  unity  with- 
out harmony,  unity  without  life  and  without 
outlook. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS 

IT  is  a  compliment  to  the  churches  and 
their  ministry  that  all  manner  of  reforms 
so  largely  turn  to  them  for  comfort  and 
assistance  and  feel  such  keen  disappointment 
and  resentment  when  they  fail  to  respond  as 
readily  and  generously  as  is  thought  to  be 
proper.  If  the  churches  do  not  themselves 
institute  reforms  they  are  relied  on  for  sup- 
port and  are  at  once  exploited  in  the  interest 
of  almost  every  movement  which  aims  at  the 
betterment  of  man  through  popular  support. 
In  Europe  the  beggars  sit  by  the  church 
doors,  and  in  this  country  every  man  who  is 
pleading  for  help  in  a  good  cause  besieges 
the  church.  In  these  days  such  benevolent 
movements,  local  and  general,  are  multitudi- 
nous and  their  demands  on  the  time  and 
strength  of  the  minister  are  large  and  insist- 
ent. If  he  fails  to  lend  a  ready  ear  and  a 
helping  hand  to  every  good  cause  he  is 
branded  as  an  ignorant  reactionary  out  of 
sympathy  with  his  times.  On  the  other  hand 
no  man's  strength  would  be  equal  to  the 
182 


MINISTER  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS    183 

burden  of  actively  supporting  all  the  worthy 
causes  that  are  brought  to  the  attention  of 
our  city  churches  to-day,  even  if  he  gave  his 
whole  time  to  the  task.  Moreover  by  such 
preoccupation  he  would  lose  the  valuable 
asset  of  his  ministerial  calling  and  position 
which  give  these  movements  access  to  the 
churches  and  render  the  minister's  support  so 
weighty  and  desirable.  He  would  then  be 
only  a  reformer  like  the  rest,  and  his  distinct- 
ive spiritual  functions  would  disappear. 
What  is  he  to  do  in  this  perplexing  embar- 
rassment of  riches  ?  The  very  extra-eccle- 
siastical forces  which  are  so  powerfully  mak- 
ing for  truth  and  righteousness  and  are  in 
very  large  degree  his  allies  frequently  em- 
barrass him  by  their  numbers,  excellence  and 
insistence. 

The  application  of  the  vital  principle  to 
his  work  will  often  help  him.  According  to 
this  principle  he  is  to  serve  man — oppose  and 
destroy  his  enemies,  build  up  his  life.  Let 
him  keep  this  goal  steadily  in  view  and  be 
controlled  by  that  aim.  He  is  called  to  serve 
man,  the  whole  of  man,  body,  mind,  and 
spirit — man  physical,  moral,  intellectual, 
spiritual.  All  parts  of  man  are  equally  the 
handiwork  of  God  and  the  health  and  devel- 
opment of  each  part  contributes  to  the  wel- 


184  A  VITAL  MINISTEY 

fare  of  all  others  and  of  the  whole.  The 
Gospel  aims  at  the  salvation  of  all  the  parts, 
the  whole  man,  and  consequently  everything 
in  humanity  is  worthy  of  the  thought  and  ef- 
fort of  God's  minister.  He  can  and  should, 
therefore,  encourage  all  movements  that  look 
to  the  betterment  of  men  in  any  respect — 
better  homes,  adequate  wages,  reasonable 
hours ;  sanitary,  safe,  healthful  working  con- 
ditions ;  moral  and  healthful  amusements, 
good  schools,  the  prevention  of  contagious 
and  infectious  diseases,  protection  from  the 
dangers  of  vice  and  other  moral  contamina- 
tion come  within  his  purview.  But  in  the 
midst  of  this  service  he  cannot  forget  that  his 
distinctive  work  has  to  do  with  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man.  If  man  can  be  made  morally 
and  spiritually  sound  through  the  ministra- 
tions of  religion  all  other  problems  will  be 
greatly  simplified.  The  minister  in  his  spir- 
itual functions  is  laying  the  axe  at  the  root  of 
the  upas  tree  of  all  evils. 

The  minister  must  not,  therefore,  permit 
anything  to  interfere  with  his  duty  to  the 
spirits  of  men.  "  This  is  life  eternal  that  they 
should  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  The 
minister's  peculiar  function  is  to  make  men 
know   God   in  Jesus  Christ,  and  having  ac- 


MINISTEE  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS    186 

complished  this  task  he  has  ministered  eter- 
nal life  to  the  whole  man,  and  eradicated 
most  of  his  evils.  And  moreover  he  and  the 
ecclesiastical  and  social  institutions  and  ac- 
tivities under  his  direction  are  the  only  agen- 
cies engaged  in  this  specific  task.  The  school 
trains  the  mind,  the  conscience,  the  body, 
more  or  less  successfully  ;  it  does  not  seek  to 
lead  men  to  a  knowledge  of  God.  In  fact 
religious  training  and  even  moral  instruction 
are  largely  excluded  from  or  at  least  neglected 
in  our  state  schools.  Numberless  agencies 
are  working  towards  the  improvement  of 
man's  physical  condition  and  environment. 
The  new^spapers  are  enlisted,  the  press  groans 
with  the  output  of  books  and  pamphlets  on 
economic  and  social  questions,  labour  unions 
and  individual  reformers  thunder  and  plead 
and  anathematize,  clubs  watch  the  theatres, 
dance  halls  and  picture  shows.  The  tide  of 
interest  in  these  matters  is  running  at  the 
flood  and  threatens  to  engulf  all  distinctively 
religious  work.  But  not  one  of  all  these 
varied  and  multitudinous  forms  of  activity  in 
the  interest  of  the  temporal  lives  of  men  gives 
any  attention  to  their  souls.  The  average 
man  can  still  say  in  the  midst  of  this  clamor- 
ous social  striving,  '*  No  man  careth  for  my 
soul."     The    minister's    supreme   duty  and 


186  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

function  remain  still  his  own.  He  is  without 
a  rival  or  one  who  aspires  to  be  a  rival  in 
this  field.  He  is  the  only  man  and  the 
Church  is  the  only  institution  who  are  seek- 
ing to  lead  men  to  root  their  lives  in  the 
realities  of  the  unseen  spiritual  world  and 
take  hold  upon  the  issues  of  eternity.  And 
it  is  a  grave  question  whether  it  is  possible  to 
keep  a  man  climbing  the  upward  path  in  other 
respects  while  his  deepest  self  is  neglected. 

The  minister's  field  is  the  life  of  man,  the 
whole  of  man  ;  but  like  every  other  wise  la- 
bourer he  will  give  particular  attention  to 
those  parts  of  the  field  which  are  most  in  need 
of  his  care  and  which  promise  to  respond 
most  generously  and  liberally  to  his  efforts. 
If  other  labourers  occupy  the  same  field  he 
will  seek  to  avoid  duplication  of  equipment 
and  effort. 

As  the  minister  examines  the  conditions  of 
his  field  from  time  to  time  he  will  find  the 
needs  varying.  The  spiritual  needs  will 
always  be  there  and  will  always  be  left  for 
his  treatment — spiritual  blindness,  indiffer- 
ence and  deadness  leading  to  a  whole  train 
of  other  evils.  The  other  human  needs  will 
vary  from  field  to  field  and  from  time  to  time 
in  the  same  field.  The  faithful  pastor  must 
meet  these  too.     He  will  sometimes  find  his 


MINISTER  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS    187 

people  ignorant  of  unhealthful  social  condi- 
tions and  apathetic  towards  social  reform ;  it 
will  be  necessary  for  him  to  instruct  and 
arouse  them  to  the  needs  and  to  their  duty  in 
the  premises.  Again  he  will  find  them  un- 
conscious of  the  menace  of  disease,  or  of  prev- 
alent moral  dangers,  or  of  economic  injus- 
tice in  the  community.  Here  again  it  is  his 
province  to  inform  and  warn  and  arouse. 
Sometimes  the  issues  in  political  contests  are 
at  bottom  moral,  but  the  moral  issues  are 
often  obscured  by  party  passions  and  prej- 
udices and  the  greed  for  position  and  power. 
The  average  politician  fears  a  moral  ques- 
tion, shuns  and  taboos  it  as  much  as  possi- 
ble. It  is  often  the  preacher's  duty  to  strip 
these  questions  of  confusing  details  and  the 
obscuring  smoke  of  battle  and  set  them  forth 
in  their  naked  and  fundamental  meaning  so 
that  the  average  man  may  see  the  real  issues 
at  stake. 

But  all  this  must  necessarily  be  on  the  side. 
The  preacher  is  not  a  social  reformer  nor  a 
political  agitator  nor  a  walking  delegate. 
"  Christianity  ceases  to  be  Christian  if  it  puts 
the  material  prosperity  of  the  masses  in  the 
forefront,  as  the  thing  that  is  to  be  aimed  at 
first  and  before  all  else,  and  only  claims  that 
religion  is  not  to  be  overlooked  as  one  of  many 


188  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

means  for  realizing  this  secular  aim."  That 
there  is  some  danger  that  some  preachers 
may  be  swept  away  by  the  flood  of  social  in- 
terest and  activity  now  regnant  among  us 
will  hardly  be  denied  by  any  careful  observer. 
The  fact  that  there  are  also  many  who  are 
wholly  unmoved  by  the  cry  of  their  fellows 
from  the  factory  and  the  tenement  does  not 
alter  the  danger  to  others.  Now  and  then  a 
minister  deserts  the  pulpit  for  the  lecture 
platform  or  the  political  hustings  or  becomes 
a  labour  agitator  as  a  means  of  larger  useful- 
ness. The  tide  has  been  too  strong  and  he 
has  yielded,  and  yet  if  he  be  a  true  minister 
he  has  undoubtedly  shallowed  and  narrowed 
his  field  of  usefulness.  Had  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth devoted  Himself  to  the  amelioration  of 
the  political,  social  and  economic  conditions 
of  His  people  His  name  might  have  been  pre- 
served to  us  as  that  of  another  patriotic  agi- 
tator whom  the  Roman  government  had  cut 
off  in  mid-career.  Nobody  would  have  sus- 
pected that  He  was  the  divine  Saviour  of 
mankind.  By  confining  His  attention  to  the 
deepest  things  He  renovated  the  whole  man 
and  modified  the  face  of  mankind. 

It  is  sometimes  charged  that  Christianity 
is  uninterested  in  the  physical  and  social 
welfare  of  men.     The  charge  is  the  fruit  of 


MINISTER  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS    189 

either  ignorance  or  malice.  While  the 
Church  has  steadily  laid  chief  stress  on  the 
spiritual  and  eternal  interests  of  men  it  has 
neither  forgotten  men's  bodies  nor  divorced 
the  spiritual  from  the  actual  and  the  prac- 
tical. It  has  never  been  wholly  otherworldly. 
During  its  entire  history  the  Church  has 
sought  to  improve  the  temporal  condition  of 
men,  and  during  the  Middle  Ages  it  was 
almost  the  sole  support  of  those  agencies 
and  institutions  which  strove  for  the  social 
and  moral  and  physical  uplift  of  society. 
The  schools  and  the  other  means  for  the 
preservation  and  dissemination  of  culture, 
the  care  of  the  poor  and  defective,  the  con- 
trol of  marriage  and  divorce ;  the  struggle 
with  vice,  drunkenness,  slavery,  poverty, 
disease,  not  only  found  in  the  Church  sup- 
port and  sympathy,  but  were  almost  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  Indeed  these 
duties  were  so  engrossing  that  the  Church 
was  largely  secularized  by  their  weight.  In 
modern  times  they  have  been  very  largely 
transferred  to  the  State,  but  this  has  been 
through  no  fault  of  the  Church.  The  trans- 
fer was  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  State 
had  robbed  the  Church  of  its  large  financial 
resources  leaving  it  unable  to  cope  with  such 
tasks  as  it  formerly  wrought,  and  partly  to 


190  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

the  divided  condition  of  Protestantism  which 
leaves  the  State  the  only  institution  which 
approximately  represents  the  whole  of  society 
and  commands  sufficient  resources  to  meet 
the  demands.  It  is  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ 
which  is  penetrating  the  whole  of  society 
and  transforming  the  State  into  a  benevolent 
institution  operated  for  the  benefit  of  all 
rather  than  for  the  prince  and  his  entourage. 
This  enlargement  of  the  functions  and  re- 
sources of  the  State  has  left  the  Church 
much  freer  to  perform  its  own  peculiar  spir- 
itual functions,  but  has  deprived  it  of  the 
large  field  where  its  services  were  much 
more  obvious  and  where  reasons  for  grati- 
tude were  tangible.  It  does  not  and  cannot 
devote  itself  so  largely  to  the  serving  of 
tables ;  that  work  is  now  done  by  other  agen- 
cies. As  in  the  long  ago  the  apostles  sought 
freedom  from  temporalities  that  they  might 
give  themselves  undividedly  to  the  spiritual 
work  of  the  kingdom,  so  to-day  the  Church 
has  been  relieved  by  the  progress  of  events 
from  the  strain  of  the  material  burdens  that 
rested  upon  it  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  it  will  give  itself  to  prayer 
and  the  ministration  of  the  Word  with  undi- 
vided attention  and  unflagging  devotion. 
Tables  must  be  served,  the  whole  man  must 


MINISTER  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS    191 

be  cared  for,  living  conditions  must  be  im- 
proved at  countless  points.  But  these  do 
not  constitute  the  main  matter  in  the  work  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Ministers  must  assist 
in  the  generation  of  the  spirit  and  motives 
which  are  necessary  to  these  beneficent  ac- 
tivities, must  often  instruct,  exhort  and  di- 
rect ;  but  their  business  is  with  the  spirits  of 
men.  Man's  soul,  this  is  the  neglected  field, 
left  almost  entirely  to  the  minister's  care. 

The  vital  principle  forbids  the  prescribing 
of  rules  of  action  in  this  as  in  other  aspects 
of  ministerial  labour,  but  it  certainly  assists 
him  to  a  judicious  distribution  of  his  efforts. 
It  helps  him  to  recognize  his  field  as  neither 
man's  soul  nor  man's  body,  but  the  whole  of 
man.  The  goal  is  the  adequate  cultivation 
of  this  whole  field  so  as  to  produce  the  best 
and  soundest  man  possible.  To  do  this  the 
minister  will  need  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  all  human  needs  on  his  field  of  labour 
and  enter  sympathetically  into  all  human 
striving  for  higher,  happier  and  holier  living. 
Knowing  his  field  thoroughly  and  seeking  to 
aid  and  inspire  all  endeavours  for  the  welfare 
of  man  he  will  put  in  his  own  ploughshare 
where  there  is  most  neglect  and  most  promise 
of  a  rich  and  abundant  harvest.  The  amount 
of  time  and  attention  to  be  devoted  to  social 


192  A  VITAL  MINISTRY 

questions  must,  therefore,  be  determined  by 
the  conditions  of  his  parish  and  community 
and  his  own  aptitudes ;  but  the  minister  can 
never  forget  that  the  way  to  give  men  life  is 
to  bring  them  to  know  God  the  Father  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  He  has  sent. 

The  effort  has  been  made  in  the  preceding 
pages  to  show  that  the  true  ideal  of  the  min- 
istry is  the  vital  one  of  producing  godlike 
men  and  women,  and  also  to  point  out  how 
the  conscious  adoption  of  this  ideal  by  the 
minister  would  affect  various  aspects  of  his 
work  and  relations.  The  number  could  be 
extended,  but  it  is  believed  that  sufficient  has 
been  said  to  show  the  fruitfulness  of  the 
idea.  Should  all  the  ministers  of  the  Christian 
religion  come  to  this  ideal  much  of  our 
inefficiency,  divisions  and  strifes  would  dis- 
appear in  the  warmth  of  a  great  effort  to 
realize  the  holiness  and  happiness  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  The  output  of 
Christian  work  is  a  regenerated  humanity ; 
all  else  in  our  churches  is  only  contributory 
to  that  supreme  end.  **I  came  that  they 
may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly." 
"  As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I 
you." 

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